I was driving home on Friday after work, and heard a "debate" on the local SF radio station about whether or not, we should bomb Iran. While I am now used to this actually being presented as a serious idea, and with a straight face by pundits and news agents, what particularly blew my mind into tiny glass shards, was that the talk show host had JUST FINISHED interviewing Wayne White, Adjunct Scholar at the Middle East Institute an expert on Iran, who had clearly stated, based upon his serious study and review of the current situation, that bombing Iran would be disasterous. Disasterous. Yet, Gil Gross, talk show host, (and let's not forget, comedian) asked the general public to call the show and weigh in on whether or not we should rain destruction on Iran in a first strike.
What is the point of this exercise? Is it to illustrate the point that Americans are so ignorant of what it means to actually study and research other cultures and political climates? Is it to demonstrate and flaunt a feeling on the part of many Americans that it's patriotic to distrust and dismiss evidential facts when presented by "intellectuals" rather than politicians or military?
I mean, just the other day we were being told we need to listen to General Petraeus' assessment of what the facts are on the ground in Iraq and that we should also listen to what the glorious leader Bush has to say about his "beliefs" about Iraq. So, it's listen to Petraeus' cherry picked stats and Bush's political shilling for the neocon party line, but dismiss and behave as if we never heard it, the detailed and factual account from a man who STUDIES another culture (Iran) for a living!
I have heard from another source, OTHER than Wayne White that the younger generation in Iran is in the majority, in fact that 52% of Iranians are under 25 and they are very dissatisfied with Ahmadinejad's regime. They lean toward secular rule, they want iPods and cell phones, computers and other items which are iconic of the younger generation, worldwide. If we wait five minutes, this generation could shift everything in Iran to a position which would be much more "user friendly" to the West. Bombing Iran would serve to throw the younger generation in Iran into the arms of the rightwing of the country, for the sake of national solidarity. Isn't that obvious? Have we learned nothing of 9/11? Does our memory not serve to provide us with images of Americans banding together, regardless of political party? Do we not recall the sudden solidarity we all felt toward a common enemy?
Jaysus! I can't believe we would be so stupid as to ignore the advice and concerns of a veteran middle eastern scholar in favor of the kneejerk uninformed reactionary sentiments of Americans who can't be bothered to crack a book or a website or even a policy paper on such a complex subject. Yeah, let's poll Joe Average American to determine our next foreign policy maneuver in the middle east hotbed of potential nuclear destruction. (Let's not forget, Israel has nukes).
All I know is that as I listened to my fellow citizens calling in to the program stating that they believe we should "nuke 'em" (this AFTER Wayne White's extensive report advocating diplomacy) the tiny glass shards of my blown mind began to circulate through my bloodstream sending tiny points of pain throughout my being.
Makes me wanna holla, makes me wanna shout "Beam me up Scotty!" Or maybe just beam me down to Mexico......where i can be an ex-Pat as I watch the American citizenry talk each other into another pointless, stupid, horrifically immoral war.
When will we ever learn?
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