Quote:
Originally Posted by DirtyHippieUTE
As much as the subject matter of this photo bugs me, I have to admit the timing bugs me just about as much.
There have been human rights violations in Iran for as long as any of us can remember. It is only when the nation is starting to build up a case for hating Iran that we start seeing the media snapping and publishing pics.
One guy gets the hell beat out of him in Iran... Do we care how many people had the same thing happen to them in China? Or do we care how many people are starving in other places where we might be able to go in and help without starting a war?
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Along this same vein, if one ges back and looks at the rhetoric about Iran in the late eighties-early nineties it was of the same variety. I remember seeing some of the Shiite celebrations where the men would cut themsleves along their hair line, and then leap around, chanting and slapping themselves on the cut so that they would get blood flowing. This was terrifying to me as a kid and I was very afraid of their extremist nature.
Fast forward to the election of the "reformist" Khatami in 97 or 98 or somewhere thereabouts and suddenly the rhetoric is about the influence of cable tv on the populace and how the clerics could be facing an uprising very soon. Which, of course, did not pan out. In reality Khatami reformed very little, and while his was a more soothing presence than Ahmadinejad the real powers Khameni(sic) never changed and the clerics were still firmly in charge.
Looking at those seperate portrayals of what was essentially the same governmental structure cause me to wonder about the motives of whomever posted these pictures. What they portray is disgusting, but do they enlighten us un any way related to the foreign policy intent of Iran? Do they shed new light on the intentions and inner workings of the regime? No. They are as old as the revolution.