Charlie Rose

Demosthenes  06/16/2009 10:42 AM Report

Dear Mr. ShalomFreedman,

I would like to point out some reservations I have about your arguments.

Your point about Israel being the most pro-American country is a bit pointless. It should be fairly obvious that these people are not taking Israel into account; nor should they have to to make their point.

Your point about why Iran is not developing nuclear technology for energy purposes also does not necessarily hold water. Just because they have plenty of oil does not mean that they could not use nuclear energy. If they develop nuclear energy, they can sell the oil which will continue to consistently appreciate in value over time. It does make economic sense to develop nuclear power for energy purposes. That said, I do think that they are developing their capability for more than just energy, but the fact that they have oil is not, in itself, an argument that they would not develop nuclear power for energy purposes.

I agree with you that Charlie's guests are exhibiting wishful thinking. The election results and the present aftermath are witness to that. Let us both hope, however, that the wishful thinking is not totally erroneous, and that the Iranian popular outrage will force the regime to back down. If the totalitarianism was complete, nobody would have the courage to riot the way Mousavi's people are doing. Furthermore, they would not have had the courage to campaign as strongly as they did in the first place. That said, it is not easy for them to mount a democratic revolution like in Serbia, Ukraine and Georgia, and more than likely the Mullahs will somehow keep power, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

As to the Mullahs, I wonder if anti-Americanism and anti-Israelism is really what motivates them, or if they feel that they can only remain in power if they continue to exhibit these ideological premises. The anti-Americanism and anti-Israelism may only be instrumental rhetoric rather than really internalized at this point. But who knows?

REMant  06/16/2009 12:55 AM Report

I agree about the nuclear weapon program, and I suspect a lot of the talk about it is like the Iraq WMD business, meant to stir up trouble, however, there should be no doubt that most of the mullahs are behind Ahmadinajhad, probably putting him in power in the first place in anticipation of just such an occasion as has arisen with this election, which will likely make it more difficult to exercise restraint.

ShalomFreedman  06/15/2009 02:29 PM Report

A number of additional errors . The claim that the country in the Middle East in which the United States is most popular is Iran is erroneous. Israel is the country where America is most respected honored and admired. Secondly, the claim that the Iranians are not developing nuclear weapons capability is false. They do not need nuclear energy for domestic purposes as they are tremendously rich in fossil- fuel resources. There are other 'stretchers' in this presentation such as Majd's claim that it is only a small group of conservatives that are anti- American. The regime of the mullahs in Tehran is a fundamentalist Islamic regime and the United States is conceived by it to be its first cultural and spiritual enemy. True this is not the view of a great share, perhaps the majority of the people. But those in control hate the United States. They will be using any talks with the United States to buy more time for their nuclear program. The one good thing about the elections is that a huge mass of the Iranian public is now clearly openly against the regime. But they do not have the means to overthrow it. That is the terrible part, and the regime which has already begun to repress them, will add repressive measures no matter what pressure the United States and Europe say they will apply.

ShalomFreedman  06/15/2009 02:09 PM Report

It is a delight to watch this segment after the election results are in. Both of the commentators believe that Moussavi will win. Hooman Majd says that 'Ahmadinejad will have to fold." Majd claims that if the vote is rigged Ahmadinejad will fall. It doesn't seem this way at all. Instead the totalitarian regime is shutting down means of communication, prohibiting demonstrations, arresting protesters. Here we have a lot of wishful thinking and not much real understanding of the character of totalitarian Iran.