I agree with you that Iran is demonized by “supporters” of Israel, in order to distract attention from the continuing oppression of the Palestinians by the Israelis- – especially in the West Bank. Sir Max Hastinings has come good comments in the Financial Times today: “A deaf and defiant Israel is gambling with its future”. “Some day Americans will awaken to the heavy strategic price their own nation pays for indulging Israeli excesses.”

Zionists never forget and never forgive: for Jews to have been a Persian satrapi is still a seething humiliation, one that zionism intends to redress by reversing the roles, just as zionism is ghettoizing and victimizing Palestinians in revenge. Israel is using American blood, money, political cover, and most of all, ignorance, to get what Israel wants: dominance in the Middle East, with Israel as the little empire/hinge between blossoming China and India, and Europe.

Sakineh asked how the West will lay pipeline across Iran if Iran is laid waste by Israeli/American bombs. Germany is investing in railways across the Arabian desert; Saudi Arabia is struggling to control Yemen, guardian to Red Sea ports; Germany is selling Israel submarines to patrol the Persian Gulf: the scheme is to shut out Iran and establish a Red Sea route to the Mediterranean.

Nukes are the pretext. The true goal is Israeli wealth and dominance over Iran’s resources, institutions, and human capital. Americans haven’t yet figured out that Israel will kick them under the bus sooner rather than later.

I just saw your comment about Ahmadinejad is being an enigma to you. Apparently, there are great degree of accuracy with your comment. he has changed even Iran’s internal political dynamic radically with his unique leadership style. something few people could ever do in the history of modern Iran or the whole Mideast. however, I guess, you would know the explanation for his actions. you (probably) worked on the tumultuous politics of Mideast more than my whole lifetime so to know what it exactly means in the region to take an action like what Ahmadinejad does.

I remember, last year, a friend of mine, who we used to talk a lot about the similar subjects, asked me the same question. why should he go that far on the Palestinian issue? he could simply gather people in Iran for conferences for the cause of the Palestinians, advertise heavily and so on, if that is his intention. while these might be very pragmatic methods, there are, as you also well know, nonetheless not enough to turn the heat up to the stage he needed. in fact, Pragmatism is not a value, but rather the triumph of expediency over values. for what he wants to achieve, values (were)are needed. if you don’t talk to the extreme, you may not even be able to get the midway. the fact that he has been in that stage is because of what he said, otherwise, the Islamic of Republic of Iran was just doing those pragmatic approaches for years and nothing substantially happened. anyhow, with what we see these days, it seems, his approach is bearing the fruit. he can be vindicated at the end, as the end nears, I think.

The foolish American sanctions against Cuba have propped up the regime, and delayed the evolution into a more typical Latin American state that otherwise would have taken place.

Iran needs to cut back the gasoline subsidy, so sanctions trageting gasoline will enable the government to blame the west, and particularly the US.

Thanks for the link. I also have a feeling that the US is in its very literal sense ‘punishing’ the Iranian people for their support for the nuclear program.

While 93% of Iranians support the nuclear program (38% including production of nuclear weapons), 55% of Iranians are opposed to stopping uranium enrichment even in exchange for a lift in sanctions (which are deemed detrimental by most Iranians).
http://www.worldpublicopinion.org/pipa/articles/brmiddleeastnafricara/640.php?nid=&id=&pnt=640&lb=brme
Several polls in the last few years have shown the same result.