Apology Accepted - Wish We Could Help You

This in the Telegraph:

Leaders of Iran's opposition movement are to make an unprecedented apology to the US on the 30th anniversary of the storming of the American embassy in Tehran.

In a gesture likely to provoke fury among hardliners in the Tehran regime, they will apologise on Wednesday for the hostage crisis that gripped the world for 444 days and led to a decisive break between Iran and the US, which is now routinely denounced as "the Great Satan".

Organisers of the Green Movement, the umbrella group that seeks to overturn the official result of the June presidential election, plan to use the official commemoration of the take over to make a fresh assault on the revolutionary credentials of Iran's leadership.

Mohsen Makhmalbaf, an exiled film-maker who spearheads the opposition campaign overseas, said Iranians should repudiate the events of 1979, when a group of pro-regime agitators took over the US embassy and held diplomats and other occupants.

"Thirty years ago in the turmoil of the revolutionary zeal an indefensible act of hostage taking was committed that the new generation of Iran are not proud of at all," he said. "We know very well how that deplorable action hurt the noble American people and how it led to three decades of unnecessary and painful bad relations between our two nations.

"Only a small and repressive minority who rule Iran today still insist on keeping Iran on a confrontation course with the US, Britain and the West and indeed they have now taken the Iranian people as hostage to their destructive policies."

Protesters plan to deliver a letter addressed to President Barack Obama to the US embassy in London and deliver commemorative plaques to American embassies across Europe.

Student's Day is marked every Nov 4 by large crowds outside the embassy building celebrating the takeover of the "Den of Spies" and shouting slogans such as "Death to America" and "Death to Israel".

But an internet-based campaign has circulated a series of posters calling for infiltrators to denounce President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's re-election. The president's challengers, including the former prime minister, Mir-Hussein Mousavi, have demanded a re-run of the election, which was marred by ballot tampering.

Iran has outlawed opposition rallies and the use of violence by regime supporters has quashed open shows of defiance. The hardline response ordered by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's Supreme Leader, resulted in the deaths of at least 30 protesters and the detention of thousands. An estimated 200 opposition activists remain behind bars and three have been sentenced to death.

But the tactic of using official holidays as cover has proved to be an effective means of challenging the regime. A day of solidarity with the Palestinians was similarly hijacked in September.

By expressing regret for the embassy takeover, the opposition is taking on the most cherished event in the first months of the Islamic Republic. The confrontation was to define the new state. Tehran's defiance of America means it remains incapable of resolving a stand-off over its secret nuclear programme.

Ahmad Reza Radan, the deputy chief of Iran's police, has warned that counter-demonstrations would be put down.

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All I can say is, my heart is with the freedom fighters in Iran, and I wish with all my heart we had a President with the backbone to support you.

Oh, for the days when we stood for something; for a time when we believed in more than just saying "nice doggie" to nutjobs like Ahmadinejad. We desperately need someone who will call a spade a spade. Ronald Reagan, where are you?

A Novel Idea

I'll admit I have no idea what I'm talking about; I'm just going off of snippets I've been hearing on the news about Iran. Apparently that nutjob over there has a couple nuclear facilities going, he's testing missiles, he hates Israel, and the rest of the world is twiddling its thumbs and wringing its hands going, "Oh, my goodness, what do we do?"

Meanwhile the people of Iran are yelling as loud as they can, "He doesn't speak for us!"

Here's a novel idea: how about we pinpoint the nuclear sites, his military sites, where the mullahs live, and where Ahmadinejad lives and with no warning bomb the daylights out of them all simultaneously. Then we make it clear that if anybody else (dictatorwise) moves, they're next. Then we say, "Hey, Iranians. You wanted a free Iran, here you go. If you elect another nutjob, he'll get the same thing. Here's your chance; don't waste it. We'll help you out however we can," and then leave.

There. Problem solved. I know it's more complicated than that, but this garbage that we've got now is the Neville Chamberlain approach. That way leads to World War. If we'd just bombed the batsnot out of Hitler when he went after the Sudetenland, the Holocaust wouldn't have happened. Dictators are never satisfied. They won't stop until you kill them.

Oh-Bama, Where Art Thou?

There comes a time to take a stand.

Now, don't get me wrong, I'm an isolationist by nature.

I would like nothing better than for us to just go about our American lives and to let other countries go about theirs.

But the red blood in me also courses to the beat of freedom, and I sympathize greatly with the people on the streets of Iran who are fighting for some freedom of their own.

So, although my knee-jerk reaction is to just let them sort it out themselves, the American in me longs to help a fellow freedom-fighter obtain the blessings I have known.

Apparently that hasn't really kicked in for Obama yet.

He did (finally) utter a couple of sentences offering some weak support to freedom-lovers and some puppy-dog pleas for Iran to play nice....

And, that's about it.

Talk about passing up a golden opportunity.

Now, I can understand why the President would be cautious to not rub Iran the wrong way. It's a powder-keg over there; handle with extreme care.

But it apparently hasn't occurred to our fearless leader that the Iranian government is going to hate us whether we rub them the wrong way or not. So we might as well just pick a side and get it over with.

If we take a stand now, we have a much better chance of actually being able to follow through than if we wait until the rebellion is crushed.

Now, I'm not saying that we have to get involved militarily.

And the absolute worst thing we could do would be to send a signal that we would back up the rioters militarily and then not follow through (Bay of Pigs.....).

Speaking of the Bay of Pigs, I can't help but think of how different things might be in Cuba today if Kennedy hadn't gone chicken at the last minute...

Does anybody else sense WWIII coming on?

We've got at least two fronts lined up: Iran and North Korea. Not sure who number three to complete the new Axis of Evil will be, but I'm sure we'll find out.

Something's brewing, that's for sure.

On the eve of the singing tea kettle, the last thing we need is a Neville Chamberlain to run around trying to hold Hitler to some kind of agreement and yelling, "Peace in our time!"

That way lies real war.

Obama, please, grow a spine.

The fact is, there is absolute truth. There is right and wrong, and what the Iranian government stands for is wrong. Would you please just say it?

There's no time for fear right now.

There comes a time when we just have to stand by what is right and let the chips fall where they may.

I seem to recall when a fledging string of colonies set out on only a wing and a prayer to win their own freedom, not knowing what the outcome would be:

"They tell us, sir, that we are weak; unable to cope with so formidable an adversary. But when shall we be stronger? Will it be the next week, or the next year? Will it be when we are totally disarmed, and when a British guard shall be stationed in every house?

"Shall we gather strength by irresolution and inaction? Shall we acquire the means of effectual resistance by lying supinely on our backs and hugging the delusive phantom of hope, until our enemies shall have bound us hand and foot?

"Sir, we are not weak if we make a proper use of those means which the God of nature hath placed in our power. The millions of people, armed in the holy cause of liberty, and in such a country as that which we possess, are invincible by any force which our enemy can send against us.

"Besides, sir, we shall not fight our battles alone. There is a just God who presides over the destinies of nations, and who will raise up friends to fight our battles for us....

"There is no retreat but in submission and slavery! Our chains are forged! Their clanking may be heard on the plains of Boston! The war is inevitable -- and let it come! I repeat it, sir, let it come!"

- Patrick Henry