Tag Archives: Ayatollah Khomeini

24Mar/14

Ukraine, Iran and the Cold War

 

The Cold War is long gone, says the American  president, and the Ukrainian affair is not a“ Cold War chessboard.” Syria and Ukraine, he adds, are about “expression of hopes” rather than acts of regional powers. After all, the people – 96% of them to be exact – have spoken!  And so goes for Iran:  “If John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan could negotiate with the Soviet Union, then surely a strong and confident America can negotiate with less powerful adversaries today.” But the parallel between past and present deserves closer inspection, especially given the president’s reluctance to intervene in any battle, be it Ukraine, Syria or Iran. Apparently, there is a difference between battles of ideas to one of “international law” and perhaps this is what Ukraine might teach us about Iran.
But this parallel between past and present deserves closer inspection, especially given the president’s reluctance to intervene in any battle, be it Ukraine, Syria or Iran. Apparently, there is a difference between a battle of ideas and one of “international law.”

America and its allies in Europe never forgot their united opposition to the Soviet Union, and to its world view, so inherently incompatible with their own. They recognized, correctly, that the Soviets had a clear ideology juxtaposed with global ambitions, in which a free world had no place. They also recognized that, left unchallenged, those ambitions would weaken the free world, and perhaps completely destroy it. Continue reading

14May/08

School for Jihadism

By Nir Boms
Published February 15, 2007


“Ignorance is power,” wrote George Orwell in his famous book “1984,” referring to the information police that kept bad ideas from the eyes of good people. Our world was not immune from this logic that reversed “good” with “bad” and “war” with “peace.” Some of our darkest moments of history have seen this very type of indoctrination that brought people to think in such terms and act accordingly. And another such moment may be looming in the near horizon.

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14May/08

Orwellian ‘New-Speak’, Iranian Style

By Nir Boms, 26th June 2007

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:

  • An examination of the Iranian curriculum under former President Mohammad Khatami, considered a moderate and reformer, demonstrates that there has been no change in the values taught in Iranian schools since the time of Ayatollah Khomeini.
  • The indoctrination of Iranian children in the Iran-Iraq war is celebrated by references to their martyrdom. This “martyrdom” involved their committing suicide by running into minefields along the border areas in order to reach paradise.
  • The Millenarian patterns of thought of the Iranian leadership can be seen by constant references to clashes between the Islamic State and the “Oppressors” (i.e. the West). Seen in this light, President Ahmadinejad’s international statements acquire an even more sinister resonance.
  • Iran’s continued use of such a curriculum demonstrates the leadership’s mindset is not a benign one and that it sees education as a tool of its control mechanism.
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14May/08

Iran’s New Dark Side

By Nir Boms and Reza Bulorchi
Published July 14, 2005


Officially, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the incoming Iranian “elected” president, will assume his post next month – but his presence is already felt in the political circles and the streets of Tehran. Since his election, under the banner of a renewed Islamic revolution, the clerical regime hanged six people and sentenced another to death in the past week alone. 

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