I thought I might respond to a few of the comments that have been posted here. I am so very grateful, every day, for the freedom that we have in the U.S. to express our different points of view.

I do love my country very much, and also deeply love Iran. I was married to an Iranian for 10 years and lived most of that time with his family. I do speak Farsi, and also the dialect that my family there speaks at home. I lived in Iran during the Shah’s time, and knew people from the religious minorities, including Sunnis, and members of the ethnic groups. I saw demonstrations; I saw my English language students taken to jail.

On the FOR delegations we do have “minders” but there are ways to get around that. You can read one experience of this in an article by Robert Dreyfuss in the latest edition of “The Nation”.

I did write about the nuclear issue and Israel for this article, but that section was cut by the editors. You can read what I’ve written before about these issues in the National Catholic Reporter, Sept. 22, 2006. In short, it seems to me that the best way to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons is to talk, not to bomb and attempt to “totally obliterate them”. The interference of the U.S. government only strengthens the hands of the conservatives.

Most of the Iranian people want peace, they want representative government and they want reform. The best way, IMHO, for that to happen would be to let them work it out for themselves.

Very good and insightful article. The US government just wants to make money by putting the fear of God into the wimpering Arab countries in the Persian Gulf so they purchase more weapons. If there is nothing to fear from Iran, they might change the currency used to purchase oil away from the dollar. What is going on with the Bush/Satan administration is that they are more interested in the business opportunities that arise from killing innocent people in far away places. The more threatening the Bush/Satan (cheney) administration is, the more the gov of Iran can oppress the population. If we had a president with a brain, he would be willing to engage Iran instead of threatening it with Nuclear weapons.

About the elections,

In the last elections in which Ahmadinejad came to power there was a candidate running (that haden't been bard) that was even more liberal that Khatami.

But the western-based Iranian TV stations (that are openly funded by the US government) were telling people to boycot the elections -- and many did. But not the conservatives.

Now the same people that were saying that the elections must be boycoted, are now whining that Ahmadinejad is a hardliner, and this isn't what the Iranian people want.

To Moshe Israel, who wrote: "I would be much more impressed by Sister Ellen Francis' report IF it was absolutely clear that she was fluent in the Persian language..."
I am glad to see a Jew who understands that one must understand a language fluently before asserting what a statement purports to reflect.
I take it then, based on Moshe's own logic, that he is at least one Jew who doesn't constantly quote Ahmadinejad's "wipe off the map" statement. After all, many fluent Persian speakers will point out that "wipe off the map" was a mistranslation into an action-oriented English idiomatic expression that in English means, "I'm about to kill you".
And on the theme of actually knowing something before you form an opinion...I wonder how many of the comments about how Iran is full of bloodthirsty gangster Muslim fanatics come from people who have ever set foot in Iran?

Thank you Ellen Francis.

It is sad that so many bloggers, none of whom have ever been anywhere near Iran, rather than having the courage to ponder, go back to regurgitating the vomits they have swallowed in the Western media; specifically the claim that Iranian leaders are after the destruction of Israel.

Those who believe that crap should at least acknowledge the written statements of Iranian leadership that they have no intention of attacking anyone.

The Iranian nation prays for all of you whose hatred towards Iran has no basis other than bigotry, ignorance, inferiority complex and the hardships you have experienced throughout your own lives.

“The integrity of the upright guides them, but the unfaithful are destroyed by their duplicity”
Proverbs 11:3

“The man of integrity walks securely, but he who takes crooked paths will be found out.” Proverbs 10:9

Hussein, what you say is true, about the Iranians and the Taliban BEFORE, BUT NOT NOW. That's the difference. As I'm sure you know, al-Qaeda leadership is made up of Wahhabi Sunnis-a radical Sunni sect. HOWEVER, IRANIAN GUARD LEADERSHIP APPROACHED AL-QAEDA TO FORM AN ALLIANCE WITH THEM, WHICH WAS REFUSED, BECAUSE OF THE SUNNI/SHIITE DIVIDE. HOWEVER, IRAN IS HOLDING KEY AL-QAEDA OPERATIVES, REFUSING TO TURN THEM OVER FOR PROSECUTION-BECAUSE THEY ARE "COOPERATING" NOW, IN A WAY THEY NEVER DID BEFORE. THE SAME IS TRUE OF THE TALIBAN-AND THAT IS WHY THIS EVIL EVIL REGIME NEEDS TO BE PUT OUT OF BUSINESS, THEY EVIL TENTACLES REACH OUT, ALL OVER THE WORLD, BUT PARTICULARLY THE MIDDLE EAST. AND THE SOONER THIS COUNTRY AND ITS ALLIES MOVES PERMANENTLY TO "DECONSTRUCT" IRAN, THE BETTER OFF THE WORLD WILL BE-BECAUSE IT IS THE SINGE GREATEST THREAT TO WORLD PEACE TODAY.

Kleenex wrote: "Poor, poor Robert. Apparently that urban warfare is unpleasant comes as news to this kind-hearted humanitarian. You lost some more friends yesterday in Somalia old boy. Don't your Salafist friends demand holy war and a fight to the death? How do they like 'dem apples now, Abdul Robert?"

Poor, poor Kleenex. Urban warfare is fun to this manly warrior--especially when Americans and Palestinians die. But when Israelis die, oh, the horror! Do you pop vintage champagne when Israel drops 2-ton bombs on residential neighborhoods in Gaza? Do you jump with joy when Americans die in Vietraq? Do your Zio-fascist friends proclaim the racial superiority of Jews and kill non-Jews with impunity? Do you cheer when Israel spies on the US and sells our secrets to Communist China? How do you like dem apples, Ariel "I killed POWs like it was Malmedy" Kleenex?

IRAN IS NOT THE ENEMY! well written... its people like you that promote peace. Iran is not crazy, they will not bomb israel. iran is constantly threatened by america, and we percieve iran as a threat. stop war loving idiots from starting another battle they cant finish

The Israel Lobby, by and through its toadie Hillary, has threatened to "obliterate" Iran. Iran expressed hope for regime change in Israel, not obliteration. That was Zio-fascist disinformation, a deliberate mistranslation by part of The Israel Lobby. Israel was created by and through ethnic cleansing accomplished by mass terror. Iran was not. Israel has openly attacked US military units. Iran has not. Israel has mimicked the Warsaw ghetto with Palestinians while Iran lets Iranian Jews live in peace. Israeli maps show Israel extending all the way to Iraq. Iranian maps do not show Iran claiming the territory of other nations. Israel steals US military secrets and sells them to the USSR and Communist China. Iran does not. Israel threatens its neighbors with nukes. Iran does not. Israel uses its US lobby to severely compromise US security interests. Iran does not. Israel has imprisoned an entire people in a concentration camp. Iran has not. Israeli intelligence and Israeli leaders celebrated 9/11. Iran mourned. Israel bases it national identity on race and suppresses all those not members of the master race. Iran does not. Israel tell American Jews they are not real Jews. Iran does not.

Israeli gov't officials cannot travel to certain Western nations because they will be arrested for war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Israel is a fraud. Americans who put Israel ahead of the US are traitors. They should renounce their US citizenship and move to Israel. Steal some Palestinian land, kill some Palestinian women and children, bomb some Palestinian house. Become a true Zionist.

"Robert:

Somebody please look at the front page of the Washington Post today. It has a photo by the AP of a man who is holding up his dead son who was crushed in his own home by a US bomb.

Please look at this photo and tell me who the aggressors are in the world today?

Please tell me at what point did we become child-killers?"

Poor, poor Robert. Apparently that urban warfare is unpleasant comes as news to this kind-hearted humanitarian. You lost some more friends yesterday in Somalia old boy. Don't your Salafist friends demand holy war and a fight to the death? How do they like 'dem apples now, Abdul Robert?

Death to America. The Holocaust didn't happen. Stone to death homosexuals. Wipe another state off the map. Murder American soldiers. $Billions in weapons, cash, and, training to Hezbollah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, the Badr Brigades. Suicide bombers galore and glorified.

Ah, yes indeed. The "human, loving, hospitable face" of the peace-seeking mullahs who smile at her in the street.

Last year, Interpol issued arrest warrants for the mullahs who were in charge of Iran in the 90's. According to the warrant, they financed and planned two terrorist explosions (executed by Hezbollah)in Buenos Aires that resulted in the murders of 472 people - men, women, children. The mullahs in control of the current regime reject the warrants and continue to protect the perpetrators.

Is this the "human, loving, hospitable face" of this woman's mullahs? Some of the blood of the many victims of Iranian-sponsored terrorism throughout the ME and the world is on this woman's head for disseminating misleading, unsupported tripe such as this article.

It's disgusting. Ellen Francis has a warped sense of morality. I say she is immoral.

Thank you to Ellen Francis for showing us the softer sides of a country whose leader has vowed to vaporize an entire country. Let's ignore their massive financing and arms supply for murderous groups all over the Middle East, and concentrate on items unrelated to the nefarious pursuit of nuclear wepons up until the minute that the mushroom cloud appears.

WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME IRAN preemptively ATTACKED ANOTHER COUNTRY?

No argument that the current Iranian regime is a corrupt regime that has failed its people - after all most times, many government do end up failing on serving their people. They do torture, their economic policies does disenfranchise different segments of the population, and their foreign policies has ruined the country's reputation.

BTW doesn't this sound like another government we may know? After all what happens in rendition programs or in Guantanamo? What has happened to the qualify of life/income of middle and low income folks during the past 7 years? How is our reputation in the world vs. what it was 10 years ago?

But on the more important question about Iran being EVIL -- the overarching question you need to ASK YOURSELF is:

WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME IRAN preemptively ATTACKED ANOTHER COUNTRY?

Yes Iran is wonderful especially if you hate America, and want to genocide the Jews, Catholics, buddhists, and everyone who is not a Muslim finatic. Elaine you are being paid to write these lies. And you are being duped. Elaine you must hope for America to be bombed into extinction. On what planet are you living? It's way to easy to excuse the Iranian regime when you buy into their madness. Perhaps some slow reading like Mein Kampf will do. Tea anyone?

I have many friends who are Iranian (or, as they say, Persian) and I would agree that they are a very loving and hospitable people.
However, I think you over simplify and under state when you say that Iran is not perfect and that there are still human rights abuses.
Even my Persian friends admit that the current govt is VERY abusive. That anyone can be arrested for no apparent reason and held without cause. There is NO freedom of speech at all. The morality police are no better than the mob. They are one of, if not the biggest supporters of terrorism. The thought of this Govt with nukes is appalling.
While I agree that military action is not desirable there is in fact justification for military action against this regime. They have supplied both weapons and fighters to the Iraqi theater with the express intent of killing US soldiers and if they get a nuke. I have no doubt that they will not use it against Israel.
No. Iran is not the house of horror that some make it out to be but it is not the misunderstood and benign state that you make it out to be either

To SCHMETTERLING ( By the way, I like your name because it means BUTTERFLY in German) : I fully agree with you that the Iranians are backing the Lebanese Hizballah , out of political and sectarian interests since both are Shiite Moslems . On the other hand, your statement that Iran is shipping arms and ammunition to the Taliban in Afghanistan is totally unfounded and even impossible. Please allow me to inform you that the Taliban are a group of Islamic fundamentalists who anathemize all Shiites and regard them as their archenemy. You should remember that when the Taliban succeeded in spreading their authority over most of Afghanistan they did not hesitate to assasinate a number of Iranian diplomats who were in the predominantly Shiite Hirath region near the border with Iran . It is also well known that Iran played a role in the toppling of the Taliban before the deployment of American ground troops.

Like Jimmy Carter, Rev. Francis embraces people in Iran who, like those of Hamas, live under a regime that supports terrorism and/or atrocity. Rev. Francis is able to find some good among the people of Iran. God bless her. But she glosses over many important issues strategic issues while she "walks softly". Someone else once said, "walk softly but carry a big stick". The people of Iran smile at Ellen on the streets while the leaders of Iran run their uranium centrifuges and build weapons for Shiite militias in Iraq. I am thankful our government has the strategic ability to carry the big stick against Iran.

As a 75-year-old Egyptian who has witnessed the course of events since World War II , I would like to inform those who are not acquainted with the the history of the Middle East and that of Islam in general that Islamic civilisation was not at all strictly Arab , but, on the contrary , was based on very diverse ethnic and religious elements of which the Jews were one of the most important. During the Middle Ages , while the Jews were persecuted and humiliated throughout Christian Western Europe they were living their golden age in Spain under Islamic rule where everyone enjoyed total freedom of faith. It would be sufficient to cite the great Jewish philosopher of that time , Maimonides ( whose real name is Mousa Ibn MAimoun ) whose lived in Spain and Egypt and who wrote his works in both Arabic and Hebrew. After the reconquest of Spain by the Franks, Christianity became the only allowed religion and the Jews were forced to adopt Christianity or leave the country . In fact, a great number of them turned into Cryptojews, including the father and grandfather of the great philosopher Spinosa.
As for modern times , I would like to say that our neighbours just next door were Jews ; many of my classmates in school and at the university were Jews . Most of them remained in Egypt even after the foundation of the state of Israel in 1948. It is only in 1956 , after the triple attack By Israel, France and Britain against Egypt that they found themselves alienated and most of them chose to leave.
In addition , I believe that , inspite of the daily bloodshed in Palestine , most people in this region , at least in Egypt , make a clear distinction between Jews and Israel as a state.
Let us hope that a solution would ultimately be found so that permanent peace and mutual understanding would prevail for the benefit of all.

Justin:

Just thought I'd also set some things straight about your history as well:

Vietnam: The first attack in the Gulf of Tonkin probably did happen, although it may have been provoked by US warning shots when the ships came too close (which is still a legitimate response to closing ships). I will grant you that the second attack probably did not happen. Either way, these attacks are in the overall scheme of foreign policy only a tiny bump, since the idea of 'containment' would probably have led to US involvement anyhow.

Grenada: Was in response to a military takeover and the taking of hostages at the medical school, which happened 6 days before US invasion and responsible for the execution of the previous leader Maurice Bishop. We were also supported by 6 Carribbean nations in the immediate area.

Panama: Maybe he was our former man in Panama, but it's hard to argue against removing a kingpin.

Bosnia and Kosovo: Bosnia did not start with US involvement, but ended when the US became involved (the importance of the accord being signed in Dayton and not Paris is hard to underestimate). Kosovo was an action taken on by all of NATO, but especially with US support and the support Western Europe. US planes dropped over half the munitions, and was commanded by SACEUR, a US General (Wesley Clark). Both were under the command of NATO, but you must also remember who the most important player in NATO is (US).

As for CIA involvement elsewhere: I'm not saying I condone their actions before, but it was another time. The idea of containment in the Cold War was paramount, and where we helped one side, the Soviets usually helped the other. Its easy to denounce what the US did as immoral, and maybe it was, but without taking into account the big picture, then you become the one thats just sniping small facts of history.

As a 75-year-old Egyptian who has witnessed the course of events since World War II , I would like to inform those who are not acquainted with the the history of the Middle East and that of Islam in general that Islamic civilisation was not at all strictly Arab , but, on the contrary , was based on very diverse ethnic and religious elements of which the Jews were one of the most important. During the Middle Ages , while the Jews were persecuted and humiliated throughout Christian Western Europe they were living their golden age in Spain under Islamic rule where everyone enjoyed total freedom of faith. It would be sufficient to cite the great Jewish philosopher of that time , Maimonides ( whose real name is Mousa Ibn MAimoun ) whose lived in Spain and Egypt and who wrote his works in both Arabic and Hebrew. After the reconquest of Spain by the Franks, Christianity became the only allowed religion and the Jews were forced to adopt Christianity or leave the country . In fact, a great number of them turned into Cryptojews, including the father and grandfather of the great philosopher Spinosa.
As for modern times , I would like to say that our neighbours just next door were Jews ; many of my classmates in school and at the university were Jews . Most of them remained in Egypt even after the foundation of the state of Israel in 1948. It is only in 1956 , after the triple attack By Israel, France and Britain against Egypt that they found themselves alienated and most of them chose to leave.
In addition , I believe that , inspite of the daily bloodshed in Palestine , most people in this region , at least in Egypt , make a clear distinction between Jews and Israel as a state.
Let us hope that a solution would ultimately be found so that permanent peace and mutual understanding would prevail for the benefit of all.

I love you and all Americans. I, too, can't understand what the Bush administration is after. We can be a contribution to the world's peace and prosperity if misunderstandisngs fall.

Rev. Francis;

The Iranian people are great people, however they are ruled by bunch of blood thirsty mullahs! Our mothers and daughters are considered half of a man and treated like property of men! Our young people are hung in public with no due process!

Please do not become a mouth-piece for the mullahs.

As an Israeli, I have NO doubt that many educated Iranian civilians and students are probably perplexed by the campaign against Iranian atomic
"research" , Iranian hostility towards the USA, threats against Israel.

Internal Iranian politics, and the extent of Iranian police control are impossible to even guess at...
But there are signs that the claims made by the USA and others have substance:

- Iran arms supply to keep Iraq and Afghanistan in tension.
- Iran arms , trains, and possibly directs Hizballah...and stirs the trouble in Gaza.

on the other hand:

"But based on my experiences, I believe there is absolutely no justification or rational cause for military intervention or sanctions against Iran."

No doubt true...based on Sister Ellen Francis'
experiences.

I would be much more impressed by Sister Ellen Francis' report IF it was absolutely clear that she was fluent in the Persian language and understood the nuances of Shiite and Sunnii Islam.

Moshe Israel

Arab countries have a right to be pissed off about Israel. Imagine if the EU took Washington D.C. and handed it to the Native American tribes we decimated 200 years ago?
Except it's worse than that, we re-created Israel due to the European treatment of the Jews during and after WWII (jewish persecution in Europe does not end with Hitler or Germany).
Before Israel existed the Jews throughout the Middle East were ACCEPTED. The current hatred is due to the fact that the Islamic holy land was stolen from them, to be given to European Jews because Europeans could not, or would not, fix their own mess.
You can argue all day long about Israel's right to exist, but you need to understand WHY it exists. Furthermore you should understand it is not that Islam teaches intolerance, heck even Malcolm X was pacified after visiting Mecca, but rather a political injustice that created the current relationship between the Arab/Persian states and Israel.
Even further, you're a blantant moron if you think the U.S. will or should use nuclear weapons again.
In conclusion you should try to understand your "enemy's" side to this equation, you'll be better off for it.

Jews are the greatest murderers in the history of the world. First in Russia, Ukraine, and Europe and now Palestine. Now W the Jewish slave wants us to attack Iran. Sorry W go back to Texas. You are by far the most incompetent "president" in history. Do you even know where Iran is? Do you even know where your master, Israel, is? Israel is not worth the life of even one American or any other person for that matter.

Thank you Ellen Francis for your view of Iran and Iranians. We are sick of the fear-mongering against Iran and Iranians by the Bush adminstration.

Thank you Ellen Francis for your view of Iran and Iranians. We are sick of the fear-mongering against Iran and Iranians by the Bush adminstration.

History Buff, sorry for the late response. Been out and about.

Vietnam: North Vietnamese/ Viet Cong invade South Vietnam in an effort to reunite the two halves under Communist rule. The US goes from advising the South Vietnamese military with around 700 troops to full scale military involvement in accordance with the South East Asia Treaty Organization obligations under Kennedy. (you convenienty forget the escalation due to the incident in the Gulf of Tonkin, which didn't happen and was most likely staged by the USA)

Grenada: After a Communist Coup takes American students and doctors hostage, the US invades to free it's citizens and restore the Democratic Gov't. (Again, selective memory involving this one. Communist Coup or coup took place 4 years before the invastion)

Panama: I'll give you that one. Other than protecting the canal from being managed by a drug lord, we really didn't have a good reasono to depose Noriega (selective memory again. Drug lorg was working for CIA before going off line and we felt he needed to be dealt with)

Iraq 1: After invading Kuwait and pillaging it, UN forces led by the US, at the request of Saudi Arabia, retook Kuwait and restored it's sovereignty. (One point for History buff)

Somalia: US forces deployed under a UN resolution to stop a humanitarian crisis. (Didn't think this was a war but I guess you get another one)

Bosnia: NATO bombs Serb positions to stop ethnic cleansing of Bosnians (nato not us and we didn't start war. Nice try)

Kosovo: Same as above

Iraq 1.5: Iraq refuses to abide by cease fire agreements sparking various military strikes by coalition forces for several years

Afghanistan: Taliban Government of Afghanistan allows Al-Qaeda to attack US civilian and military installations on 9/11/01. The US responds by invading/assisting locals in deposing Taliban Gov't. Efforts continue to defeat Taliban guerrillas (Taliban didn't allow Al-Qaeda to attack us. Al-Qaeda attacked us. Sure war was warranted but get your facts right)

Iraq 2: Iraq continues to defy UN resolutions and cease-fire agreement that paused the first Gulf War. US re-invades to remove Saddam Hussein and eliminate suspected WMD's ( last time I checked you and your neo con friends insisted their were weapons of mass destruction. There were numerous people, even in the CIA, who didn't think there were WMD's but they were ignored. UN did not back US invasion. And if we were so concerned about UN resolutions why haven't we invaded Israel which has declined to follow numerous resolutions?)

Iraq 2.5: With defeat of Saddam Hussein, the US is continuing to try to stabilize the new Iraqi Gov't with limited success. (yeah, I know, we're doing it for the Iraqi people. Just for them, not for Oil)

My point is that other than Panama, the US has not invaded or started a war without either being attacked first or receiving UN authorization. In the case of Iraq 2, while the UN did not explicitly permit the US to invade, Iraq was in breach of the terms that PAUSED (not ended)the 1st Gulf War. Whether or not all the other reasons were valid for going back to war, the cease fire was null and void and was more than reason enough. (History buff, you are selective with your history, facts and reasoning. Exactly what I was talking about in my first post. You neglect to mention the Bay of Pigs, the numerous CIA gov't regime changes in Iran, Guatamala, Chile, El Salvador, Nicaragua... the list goes on) Apparently you are a fan of selective history.

IRAN IS THE WORLD'S NUMBER ONE EXPORTER OF TERRORISM BY PROXY IN THE WORLD:

Let's look at a partial list that the Iranian IRG and its accomplices the murderous mullahs have had their hands in:

1. Khobar Towers bombing
2. bombing of the Buenos Aires synagogue,
3. USS Cole bombing
4. 9/11 Hijackers passed through Iran on their way to the US
5. TWA 847-the brutal torture and murder of Navy Diver Stetham of Waldorf, Maryland, WHERE THOSE IRANIAN HIZBOLLAH DEVILS JUMPED ON HIS BODY, THEN SHOT HIM AND THREW HIS BODY OUT ON THE TARMAC.
6. Iranian involvement in Pan Am 103 Lockerbie bombing
7. Arming the Taliban, arming al-Qaeda in Iraq
8. Aiding al-Qaeda in Iraq, holding al-Qaeda leaders in Iran, and refusing to turn them over

THE LIST GOES ON AND ON, ALL THE WAY BACK TO 1979, WHEN THE IRANIANS TOOK 89 AMERICAN HOSTAGES FOR 444 DAYS

IRAN HAS TO BE PUT OUT OF BUSINESS-PERMANENTLY, AND IF TAKES A NUCLEAR STRIKE TO DO IT, THEN SO BE IT, THE WORLD WILL TRULY HAVE SOMETHING LIKE PEACE IN THE WORLD WHEN IRAN IS TAKEN OUT. THE PROBLEM IS, THE IRANIANS DON'T UNDERSTAND, OR RESPOND TO ANYTHING OTHER THAN FORCE-AND THAT THEY WILL GET. THE IRANIANS DON'T NEGOTIATE, THEY DON'T COMPROMISE, IT'S EITHER THEIR WAY OR THE HIGHWAY, TO BELIEVE OTHERWISE IS SIMPLY STUPID, AND NAIVE (AND THAT'S YOU, ELLEN). THE IRANIANS MAKE PROMISES TO THE WORLD'S LEADERS, BUT LIKE THE ROGUE STATE THEY ARE, THEY LIE AS EASILY AS THEY BLINK THEIR EYES-THEY PROMISE THAT THEIR NUCLEAR REACTORS ARE FOR "PEACEFUL" PURPOSES, YET, THEY CONTINUE TO ENRICH URANIUM, AND THWART THE IAEA INSPECTORS. THE ENTIRE MIDDLE EAST IS NOW ARMED TO THE TEETH, IN A DIVIDE AND CONQUER STRATEGY AGAINST IRAN-THE SAUDIS, UAE, EGYPT AND JORDAN JUST GOT BILLIONS IN NEW MILITARY HARDWARE. NATO'S NEW MISSILE DEFENSE SHIELD (WHICH ALL THE NATO MEMBERS UNANIMOUSLY AGREED ON) WHICH WILL BE BUILT IN THE CZECH REPUBLIC IS BEING BUILT, SOLELY ON ACCOUNT OF IRAN.

So, Ellen dear, don't give us this BS ABOUT THINGS YOU KNOW ABSOLUTELY NOTHING ABOUT-IRAN ABSOLUTELY IS THE ENEMY. IRAN IS EVIL TO THE CORE, AND THE SOONER THEY ARE PUT OUT OF BUSINESS, THE BETTER.

Rev Francis is correct in that Iranians on a personal level are friendly people. I was a retail mgr. who had several Iranians in the workplace and we got along very well. They also were very matter of fact that Israel should not exist and hated Jews. There was no love for the US government which they consider no better than their own even though most of them were here as political refuges. They can't seem to understand that we vote our government into power and most of us support it. I cannot understand why our government lets most of them in when they clearly hate us politicaly. Rev Francis seems quite naive in her belief that Iran is not our enemy. They are obviosly working overtime to build the bomb and the radicals that run the country can't wait for armigedon. The fact that they are blowing up our troops in Irag should give her a clue of their true nature. I am sure the Iranians will negotiate til the cows come home to buy time to implement whatever powerplay they have in mind.

Better words have seldom been spoken about another great part of the world so vilified by our corrupt, dishonest, and incompetent administration. If only most of our fellow citizens would make a modest effort to inform and educated themselves, they would come to the same realization, instead of supporting parking yet another aircraft carrier off the Iranian Coast..all in the name of "routine exercises". The lies and saber-rattling persist and will , until we discard this shameless incompetent imposter of a president..George Shrub the last.

Better words have seldom been spoken about another great part of the world so vilified by our corrupt, dishonest, and incompetent administration. If only most of our fellow citizens would make a modest effort to inform and educated themselves, they would come to the same realization, instead of supporting parking yet another aircraft carrier off the Iranian Coast..all in the name of "routine exercises". The lies and saber-rattling persist and will , until we discard this shameless incompetent imposter of a president..George Shrub the last.

Better words have seldom been spoken about another great part of the world so vilified by our corrupt, dishonest, and incompetent administration. If only most of our fellow citizens would make a modest effort to inform and educated themselves, they would come to the same realization, instead of supporting parking yet another aircraft carrier off the Iranian Coast..all in the name of "routine exercises". The lies and saber-rattling persist and will , until we discard this shameless incompetent imposter of a president..George Shrub the last.

Better words have seldom been spoken about another great part of the world so vilified by our corrupt, dishonest, and incompetent administration. If only most of our fellow citizens would make a modest effort to inform and educated themselves, they would come to the same realization, instead of supporting parking yet another aircraft carrier off the Iranian Coast..all in the name of "routine exercises". The lies and saber-rattling persist and will , until we discard this shameless incompetent imposter of a president..George Shrub the last.

Better words have seldom been spoken about another great part of the world so vilified by our corrupt, dishonest, and incompetent administration. If only most of our fellow citizens would make a modest effort to inform and educated themselves, they would come to the same realization, instead of supporting parking yet another aircraft carrier off the Iranian Coast..all in the name of "routine exercises". The lies and saber-rattling persist and will , until we discard this shameless incompetent imposter of a president..George Shrub the last.

Robert,

You can always buy the PC line and not see the truth if it slapped you in the face. Read the Koran, read the Hadith, study Islamic history and you will see that Islam is the problem. All you have to do is turn on the news and see what Muslims are doing. Go preach your tolerance message in Iran, Saudi Arabia, the Sudan, or Indonesia. You will realize the truth of what I am saying when your politically correct head is rolling down the street disconnected from your body. You cannot preach tolerance of another religion in any on those places and I am only naming a few. The UK is finding out now what PC is getting them. We will be next unless we wake up.

It's easy to be the nail that does not stick out -because it gets !!!!!! In Communist Russia, you could never say anything negative about communism or you will be dead. I the Nazi Germany, you could never say anything negative about nazism, or you might become invisible for the good of the third reich. Well folks, guess what country you could never say anything negative about on Capitol Hill or you will be toast and destitute for the rest of your life?

The following commentary captures the whole essence of the article quite well from another respected reader:
Guest Voices
Main Page | Guest Voices Archives | On Faith Archives
Iran is Not the Enemy
The “axis of evil” has no relevance for me when I think of Iran, a country I’ve found to have a human, loving, hospitable face throughout 40 years of encounters.

» Back to full entry
Posted by Ellen Francis on April 28, 2008 10:12 AM

All Comments (78)
SCHMETTERLING:
Hey Anti-C (aka Iranian ex-pat) I hate to tell you this: BUT IRAN IS THE WORLD'S NUMBER ONE EXPORTER OF TERRORISM BY PROXY IN THE WORLD:

Let's look at a partial list that the Iranian IRG and its accomplices the murderous mullahs have had their hands in:

1. Khobar Towers bombing
2. bombing of the Buenos Aires synagogue,
3. USS Cole bombing
4. 9/11 Hijackers passed through Iran on their way to the US
5. TWA 847-the brutal torture and murder of Navy Diver Stetham of Waldorf, Maryland, WHERE THOSE IRANIAN HIZBOLLAH DEVILS JUMPED ON HIS BODY, THEN SHOT HIM AND THREW HIS BODY OUT ON THE TARMAC.
6. Iranian involvement in Pan Am 103 Lockerbie bombing
7. Arming the Taliban, arming al-Qaeda in Iraq
8. Aiding al-Qaeda in Iraq, holding al-Qaeda leaders in Iran, and refusing to turn them over

THE LIST GOES ON AND ON, ALL THE WAY BACK TO 1979, WHEN THE IRANIANS TOOK 89 AMERICAN HOSTAGES FOR 444 DAYS

IRAN HAS TO BE PUT OUT OF BUSINESS-PERMANENTLY, AND IF TAKES A NUCLEAR STRIKE TO DO IT, THEN SO BE IT, THE WORLD WILL TRULY HAVE SOMETHING LIKE PEACE IN THE WORLD WHEN IRAN IS TAKEN OUT. THE PROBLEM IS, THE IRANIANS DON'T UNDERSTAND, OR RESPOND TO ANYTHING OTHER THAN FORCE-AND THAT THEY WILL GET. THE IRANIANS DON'T NEGOTIATE, THEY DON'T COMPROMISE, IT'S EITHER THEIR WAY OR THE HIGHWAY, TO BELIEVE OTHERWISE IS SIMPLY STUPID, AND NAIVE (AND THAT'S YOU, ELLEN). THE IRANIANS MAKE PROMISES TO THE WORLD'S LEADERS, BUT LIKE THE ROGUE STATE THEY ARE, THEY LIE AS EASILY AS THEY BLINK THEIR EYES-THEY PROMISE THAT THEIR NUCLEAR REACTORS ARE FOR "PEACEFUL" PURPOSES, YET, THEY CONTINUE TO ENRICH URANIUM, AND THWART THE IAEA INSPECTORS. THE ENTIRE MIDDLE EAST IS NOW ARMED TO THE TEETH, IN A DIVIDE AND CONQUER STRATEGY AGAINST IRAN-THE SAUDIS, UAE, EGYPT AND JORDAN JUST GOT BILLIONS IN NEW MILITARY HARDWARE. NATO'S NEW MISSILE DEFENSE SHIELD (WHICH ALL THE NATO MEMBERS UNANIMOUSLY AGREED ON) WHICH WILL BE BUILT IN THE CZECH REPUBLIC IS BEING BUILT, SOLELY ON ACCOUNT OF IRAN.

So, Ellen dear, don't give us this BS ABOUT THINGS YOU KNOW ABSOLUTELY NOTHING ABOUT-IRAN ABSOLUTELY IS THE ENEMY. IRAN IS EVIL TO THE CORE, AND THE SOONER THEY ARE PUT OUT OF BUSINESS, THE BETTER.

April 30, 2008 9:13 PM | Report Offensive Comments

Posted on April 30, 2008 21:13

Scott Dinkel:
What a load of crap

April 30, 2008 8:49 PM | Report Offensive Comments

Posted on April 30, 2008 20:49

dwight:
things change, people change and when people change they can change from good to bad and the other way around. if the iranians wanted peace, they would not refine uranium and accept Israel as a mid east state, but they are refining uranium and they do want Israel gone, and that is iran's fault, no one elses...

April 30, 2008 7:46 PM | Report Offensive Comments

Posted on April 30, 2008 19:46

Josef Edwards:
Eventually a correct analysis contrasting the huge disinformation campaign against Iran, a lovely and hospitable country that everybody should visit.

April 30, 2008 7:24 PM | Report Offensive Comments

Posted on April 30, 2008 19:24

Joseph:
Well, where is the evidence of supposed Iranian misdeeds in Iraq? Are there any Iranian prisoners or "defectors" giving statements to support the claims? No. (not even a new "Curveball"). Has the Bush administration even given any pictures or other media to the press to support the claims? No. It's all conjecture and speculation. Once again, shades of the old WMD, isn't it? With 150 or 160 thousand US troops in Iraq plus another 200,000 or so contractors, you mean the USA cannot seal the border and keep things out? No. Sure seems odd, doesn't it? As for the State Dept list of "supporters of terrorism," it's all the political enemies of the USA. Venezuela for one (yeah, Chavez is a real military threat to the USA, right), and Cuba for another (another big "threat"). And, of course, Iran. But, none of the big USA supporters on the list at all. Even China got taken off the list. Saudi Arabia, where the 911 attackers came from, not on the list. Egypt, well known for practicing torture and political oppression, not on the list. And, lastly, just where is Osama Bin Laden, once again the answer is No. No, he cannot be found. As for the Iranian threat, you've got Israel to the South with 200 nukes, America to the West with 160,000 troops. What would you do?

April 30, 2008 6:54 PM | Report Offensive Comments

Posted on April 30, 2008 18:54

E.K.:
ANTICLIMACUS:

OK, I'll address this directly to you.

I actually agree with you. It isn't Iran. It's the Nazis who took over Lebanon, and who are sending suicide bombers throughout the mideast, and who are murdering American soldiers.

At least we agree on something. Now can we be friends?

April 30, 2008 6:53 PM | Report Offensive Comments

Posted on April 30, 2008 18:53

anticlimacus:
I made a reply to your previous post. It 'was received and is pending approval by the owner of the blog.' It may have been too long. Anyway, that's it for me. Sorry to keep you all in suspense.

April 30, 2008 6:48 PM | Report Offensive Comments

Posted on April 30, 2008 18:48

anticlimacus:
E.K., Tom,

Why don't you bother making arguments? If you want to abuse me, why don't you at least address your abuse to me?

Thank you, Arlene, for having enough pride in your intellect to answer arguments.

April 30, 2008 6:45 PM | Report Offensive Comments

Posted on April 30, 2008 18:45

Necmettin:
Hello,
Your article implies some new and/or peaceful ideas for future Iranian people and the whole World. I think we need to say: 'let the İranian People...make, manage, struggle...'As we think 'let the buyer...., let the World ...etc.'
Greetings.
Dr. Necmettin ÖZEL
Turkiye

April 30, 2008 6:44 PM | Report Offensive Comments

Posted on April 30, 2008 18:44

Necmettin:
Hello,
Your article implies some new and/or peaceful ideas for future Iranian people and the whole World. I think we need to say: 'let the İranian People...make, manage, struggle...'

Dr. Necmettin ÖZEL
Turkiye

April 30, 2008 6:43 PM | Report Offensive Comments

Posted on April 30, 2008 18:43

Necmettin:
Hello,
Your article implies some new and/or peaceful ideas for future Iranian people and the whole World. I think we need to say: 'let the İranian People...make, manage, struggle...'As we think 'let the buyer...., let the World ...etc.'
Greetings.

Dr. Necmettin ÖZEL
Turkiye

April 30, 2008 6:41 PM | Report Offensive Comments

Posted on April 30, 2008 18:41

E.K.:
"I'm totally with you on this anticlimacus person. His imagination is running wild. The truth means nothing to him."

I think he just changed his name to "Joseph".

April 30, 2008 6:39 PM | Report Offensive Comments

Posted on April 30, 2008 18:39

Arlene:
Tom,
Yeah, Iran didn't do it. The Nazis did it.

April 30, 2008 6:31 PM | Report Offensive Comments

Posted on April 30, 2008 18:31

Joseph:
In attacking Iran, Bush set the stage for a revival of the relationship between Tehran and Baghdad. With the secular Saddam gone, it was inevitable that Tehran would make diplomatic overtures to Baghdad. No doubt, this has left Washington and Tel Aviv squealing, as they try to come up with "evidence" of Iranian misdeeds. And, now with the war a stalemate, the only thing the USA has left is to turn Iran into a "bogeyman." Well, it's not going to work. The National Intelligence Estimate already proved your lie, Mr. Bush. As for "terrorism," how can the USA support and fund the Israeli military and her incursions into Palestinian territory. Day after day, the stories are so sad. To get one supposed Palestinian terrorist, Israeli will kill many civilians (women and children) who happened to "get in the way." This is clearly a violation of the Geneva Conventions and a war crime in itself. Oh, is "justice" only for the ones we don't like, the Iranians, but not for our "friends," sure does look that way, doesn't it!

April 30, 2008 6:29 PM | Report Offensive Comments

Posted on April 30, 2008 18:29

Tom R.:
Arlene,
I'm totally with you on this anticlimacus person. His imagination is running wild. The truth means nothing to him.

April 30, 2008 6:28 PM | Report Offensive Comments

Posted on April 30, 2008 18:28

anticlimacus:
Tom R.,

You write that Iran supports the 'most violent, anti-peace, and extremist forces in the Middle East.'

The most violent, anti-peace, and extremist force in the Middle East is the Israeli army. The second most violent, anti-pease, and extremist force in the Middle East is the American army.

The fact that these are nuclear powers puts them in a league of their own. The fact that Israel is not a member of the NPT makes it one of the most obvious dangers to world peace. The fact that America is designing (and builidng?) a new generation of nuclear weapons, in contravention of its treaty obligations, makes it another obvious danger to world peace.

April 30, 2008 6:20 PM | Report Offensive Comments

Posted on April 30, 2008 18:20

Arlene:
ANTICLIMICAS, It is not for you or for me to determine what is baseless. The arrest warrants were issued as a result of an extensive investigation by Argentina. The evidence was presented to Interpol which found it compelling. That's why Interpol issued the warrants.

Why are you so intent on ignoring facts and using your wild imagination to make up stories about Nazis when the evidence clearly points a finger at Iran?

I strongly suspect that every one of your postings on this board has not a grain of truth to it.

April 30, 2008 6:19 PM | Report Offensive Comments

Posted on April 30, 2008 18:19

anticlimacus:
Arlene,

I didn't dispute that Interpol is pursuing a request by a member country, Argentina. What I said was that the underlying charges are baseless, which you would know if you'd read more than the first few paragraphs of news items about this matter.

Please don't pretend that the connection between Nazis and South America is novel to you. Everyone knows that many Nazis sought refuge in South America, and that the South American right wing has a notorious history of antisemitism.

Check your facts, and you might stop unwittingly defending murderers.

April 30, 2008 6:08 PM | Report Offensive Comments

Posted on April 30, 2008 18:08

Arlene:
Anticlimacus, my accusation is baseless??? It wasn't Iran, it was Nazis???? I think it's time for you to stop your lies. Don't you have anything better to do with your life than to defend murders?

Interpol seeks former Iranian officials

PARIS (AP) — Iran will appeal Interpol's requests for the arrest of five prominent Iranians and a Lebanese militant sought in connection with Argentina's worst terrorist attack, an Iranian official said Thursday.

The six are wanted in Argentina in the 1994 bombing of a Jewish cultural center in Buenos Aires.

Interpol said Thursday that it would help Argentina seek their arrests internationally,......

April 30, 2008 6:03 PM | Report Offensive Comments

Posted on April 30, 2008 18:03

anticlimacus:
Jeff:

In addition to all the benefits you mentioned that America gets from its $20 billion a year to Israel, you forgot to mention all the spies which no other ally is thoughtful enough to send.

Anonymous:

Your easy indentification of Iran with Nazi Germany shows how much you like to write things in a public forum, and how little you like what you believe to be true. If Sister Ellen had visited Nazi Germany, could she have reported the pride of minority groups in having representation in Parliament?

Put more simply, is there evidence that the Islamic republic is aware of a Jewish population and not actively trying to evict it? If the answer is yes, then any comparison to Nazi Germany is idiotic, and you yourself are an idiot.

April 30, 2008 6:03 PM | Report Offensive Comments

Posted on April 30, 2008 18:03

anticlimacus:
In response to E.K.,

You wrote that Iran is supporting something called the 'Sadr brigades.' This conflation is a product of your ignorant mind, combining vague familiarity with 'the Badr brigades' and the Mahdi Army of Muqtada al-Sadr.

I won't get into the specifics, because it would hurt your head. Simply put, those two groups your imagination sewed together have actually been fighting pitched gun battles all over Iraq.

If you haven't been following the news closely enough to know who is even fighting whom in Iraq, then I respectfully ask you to find a message board on Nickelodeon.com.

Leave the forum of serious discussion to people who know a minimum of what they're talking about.

April 30, 2008 5:53 PM | Report Offensive Comments

Posted on April 30, 2008 17:53

anticlimacus:
Arlene,

Your accusation is completely baseless. There are homegrown Nazi movements in Argentina for more likely to have been responsible for the bombings than Hezbollah, to say absolutely nothing of Iran.

Let me try to understand your thinking behind this. ...... Iran ....... something bad ..... ergo, Iran is the cause of something bad.

As a corollary: .... Iran.... something else bad ... therefore, Iran caused that too. You can see, by extending this logic in a similar manner, Iran is actually responsible for -every- bad thing in the world. You would think I'm caricaturing your position, except for good old SCHMETTERLING who actually said exactly that.

You're not even trying to prove your point; isn't that proof that your statements are made in a climate where Iran is presumed guilty of everything? If it was just mass hysteria, then God help you, but isn't the reality more obvious?

The government wants to go to war with Iran and is doing the public relations work to make that war possible. Even if you still want to condemn Iran, realise that you're actually swimming with the tide here, and all manner of lies can easily slip by with one truth.

April 30, 2008 5:45 PM | Report Offensive Comments

Posted on April 30, 2008 17:45

anticlimacus:
SCHMETTERLING: (a wonderful Dickensian name. Please tell me you made it up- that would great creativity. I hope it isn't your real name- the face that such a hysterical curmudgeon grew into a name like SCHMETTERLING is somehow too sad even for pity.)

I'd just like to point out that if you want to use State Department reports as arguments against Iran, I might as well use Ministry of Information announcements to defend it. You actually accuse Ms Francis of repeating a mantra, when your most recent rant is mainly propaganda copy-and-pasted from one of the belligerents. Do you know the origin of the word hypocrite? It was originally used to describe those who would hold others to a standard they refuse to apply to themselves.

April 30, 2008 5:36 PM | Report Offensive Comments

Posted on April 30, 2008 17:36

Arlene:
Last year, Interpol issued arrest warrants for the mullahs who were in charge of Iran in the 90's. According to the warrant, they financed and planned two terrorist explosions (executed by Hezbollah)in Buenos Aires that resulted in the murders of 472 people - men, women, children. The mullahs in control of the current regime reject the warrants and continue to protect the perpetrators.

Is this the "human, loving, hospitable face" of this woman's mullahs? Some of the blood of the many victims of Iranian-sponsored terrorism throughout the ME and the world is on this woman's head for disseminating misleading, unsupported tripe such as this article. It's disgusting.

April 30, 2008 5:36 PM | Report Offensive Comments

Posted on April 30, 2008 17:36

anticlimacus:
man, i hear some of you guys talk about how the islamic republic 'destroyed the ancient culture of iran.' if you had ever seriously reflected on culture- especially 'ancient culture'- you would know that it cannot be destroyed in one generation. if the original islamisation of iran did not destroy its culture, neither will the current one. if the first shi'a revolution in th 16th century didn't destroy iran's culture, neither will the second one in the late 20th century.

at least this type of comment makes me happy that iran and iran's culture are at least on the fringers of your radar map. but if you would deflect your attention to that mysterious word 'culture,' it may start to dawn on you why so much of the world considers america's belly-gazing, anhistorical, and anti-intellectual culture so close to barbarism.

April 30, 2008 5:29 PM | Report Offensive Comments

Posted on April 30, 2008 17:29

edithann:
I would dare say that the reason this administration is about to invade Iran is not only because of the oil lanes that run to the persian gulf, or because this administrations ally Israel feels threatened but because the Iranians have the audacity to use their authority as a sovereign state to change the currency in which they sell oil--from the green back to the euro, which of course would have a disasterous effect on our already tanking economy. This was the same thing that Saddam Hussein had intended to do and you see where that got him. America cannot continue to bomb everyone that abandons the rapidly falling dollar. This is just another failing foreign policy proposal that we can't afford, and the very proposal should have the American citizenry thinking about getting rid of all those people who are supposed to be representing our best interest in Washington this November...they have done this country and its people a real dis-service

April 30, 2008 5:28 PM | Report Offensive Comments

Posted on April 30, 2008 17:28

schmetterling:
Here, Ignorant Ellen, for your benefit, is the just today released report from the State Dept.'s Year End Look at State Sponsors of Terrorism-specifically IRAN-PLEASE READ THE LAST TWO PARAGRAPHS CAREFULLY-IRAN, IN ADDITION TO ALL THE DEADLY ACTS THEY ARE CARRYING OUT IN THE MIDDLE EAST, ARE ALSO HARBORING KEY AL-QAEDA OPERATIVES, AND REFUSING TO TURN THEM OVER:

IRAN

Iran remained the most active state sponsor of terrorism. Elements of its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) were directly involved in the planning and support of terrorist acts throughout the region and continued to support a variety of groups in their use of terrorism to advance their common regional goals. Iran provides aid to Palestinian terrorist groups, Lebanese Hizballah, Iraq-based militants, and Taliban fighters in Afghanistan.

Iran remains a threat to regional stability and U.S. interests in the Middle East because of its continued support for violent groups, such as HAMAS and Hizballah, and its efforts to undercut the democratic process in Lebanon, where it seeks to build Iran’s and Hizballah’s influence to the detriment of other Lebanese communities.

Iran is a principal supporter of groups that are implacably opposed to the Middle East Peace Process, and continues to maintain a high-profile role in encouraging anti-Israel terrorist activity – rhetorically, operationally, and financially. Supreme Leader Khamenei and President Ahmadinejad praised Palestinian terrorist operations, and Iran provided Lebanese Hizballah and Palestinian terrorist groups, notably HAMAS, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command, with extensive funding, training, and weapons.

Despite its pledge to support the stabilization of Iraq, Iranian authorities continued to provide lethal support, including weapons, training, funding, and guidance, to some Iraqi militant groups that target Coalition and Iraqi security forces and Iraqi civilians. In this way, Iranian government forces have been responsible for attacks on Coalition forces. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)-Qods Force, continued to provide Iraqi militants with Iranian-produced advanced rockets, sniper rifles, automatic weapons, mortars that have killed thousands of Coalition and Iraqi Forces, and explosively formed projectiles (EFPs) that have a higher lethality rate than other types of improvised explosive devices (IEDs), and are specially designed to defeat armored vehicles used by Coalition Forces. The Qods Force, in concert with Lebanese Hizballah, provided training outside Iraq for Iraqi militants in the construction and use of sophisticated IED technology and other advanced weaponry. These individuals then passed on this training to additional militants inside Iraq, a “train-the-trainer” program. In addition, the Qods Force and Hizballah have also provided training inside Iraq. In fact, Coalition Forces captured a Lebanese Hizballah operative in Iraq in 2007.

Iran’s IRGC-Qods Force continued to provide weapons and financial aid to the Taliban to support anti-U.S. and anti-Coalition activity in Afghanistan. Since 2006, Iran has arranged a number of shipments of small arms and associated ammunition, rocket propelled grenades, mortar rounds, 107mm rockets, and plastic explosives, possibly including man-portable air defense systems (MANPADs), to the Taliban.

Iran remained unwilling to bring to justice senior al-Qa’ida (AQ) members it has detained, and has refused to publicly identify those senior members in its custody. Iran has repeatedly resisted numerous calls to transfer custody of its AQ detainees to their countries of origin or third countries for interrogation or trial. Iran also continued to fail to control the activities of some AQ members who fled to Iran following the fall of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan.

ONCE AGAIN, LIKE A MANTRA, IRAN IS THE SOURCE, FROM WHICH ALL TERRORISM FLOWS....

April 30, 2008 5:24 PM | Report Offensive Comments

Posted on April 30, 2008 17:24

SCHMETTERLING:
Ellen: I got news for you: YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT THE HELL YOU ARE TALKING ABOUT. SERIOUSLY.

IRAN IS THE SOURCE, FROM WHICH ALL TERRORISM FLOWS, IN SOME FORM, IN SOME FASHION, IT ALL PASSES THROUGH, THE ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF IRAN.

I have said this many many many times on the Post's blog. Iran is the greatest threat to world peace today, and it must be stopped from EVER gaining nuclear weapons-EVER. And that will take, the military surgical strike-THE SOONER THAT HAPPENS THE BETTER OFF THE ENTIRE WORLD WILL BE, BECAUSE IRAN'S INTENTIONS OF REGIONAL HEGEMONY IN THE ME ARE AS DISINGENUOUS AS THEY ARE MALIGNANT-AND THOSE AIMS OF HEGEMONY ARE TO FURTHER THEIR GOALS OF EXTINGUISHING THE US AND ISRAEL.

President Bush was very wrong about Iraq. BUT HE IS OH SO RIGHT ON IRAN, THE TWO SITUATIONS ARE COMPLETELY DIFFERENT, IRAN AND IRAQ-DON'T MAKE THE MISTAKE OF CONFUSING THE TWO.

April 30, 2008 4:59 PM | Report Offensive Comments

Posted on April 30, 2008 16:59

E.K.:
Death to America. The Holocaust didn't happen. Stone to death homosexuals. $Billions in weapons, cash, and, training to Hezbollah, Hamas, the Sadr Brigades. Suicide bombers galore and glorified.

Ah, yes indeed. The lovely, lovely, peace-seeking mullahs.

April 30, 2008 4:44 PM | Report Offensive Comments

Posted on April 30, 2008 16:44

Robert:
To Unveiled Truth, you can always take a few stories and generalize it to demonize a whole population. Similarly, outside of the U.S., people can look at the stories of the the christian sect in Texas and come away thinking that christians are impregnating and brutalizing minors.

Now I'm sure you agree that we would tell them that not all of us are radical christians, wouldn't we?

Not all catholic priests (our mullahs) are child molesters, despite what a lot of less informed people of other countries and our own believe.

So please try to appeal to people's common sense rather than playing to their fears. By doing so, you help our image here and also hide your ignorance.

April 30, 2008 4:42 PM | Report Offensive Comments

Posted on April 30, 2008 16:42

unveiled Truth:
You are right Islam is the enemy and the following is what it is all about:

Her crime was to fall in love. She paid with her life

Guardian UK: Rand Abdel-Qader, 17, told her closest friend that she was in love from the moment she set eyes on the young British soldier working alongside her in Basra, and she dreamed of a future with him.

It was an innocent infatuation but five months after Rand, a student of English at Basra University, met Paul, a 22-year-old soldier posted to southern Iraq, she was dead. She was stamped on, suffocated and stabbed by her father. Several brutal knife wounds punctured her slender, bruised body - from her face to her feet. He had done it, he proclaimed to the neighbours who soon gathered round, to ‘cleanse his honour’.

And as Rand was put into the ground, without ceremony, her uncles spat on her covered corpse because she had brought shame on the family. Her crime was the worst they could possibly imagine - she had fallen in love with a British soldier and dared to talk to him in public...

April 30, 2008 4:22 PM | Report Offensive Comments

Posted on April 30, 2008 16:22

Anonymous:
Dear Sister,
With all due respect, it's not the people of Iran I fear. It's the government.

Group-think is a reality. Individuals who would never hurt a soul will kill if pressed by a larger group.

April 30, 2008 4:04 PM | Report Offensive Comments

Posted on April 30, 2008 16:04

Caroline:
Someday I dream of there will be a peace courtroom where representatives of nations will be given a fair trial and aggression will be tempered by justice. I am humbled to see how much rage was stirred by Sister Ellen Francis' honest report of her experience over many years with Iran and its people. In Iran on one of the delegations she speaks of, I listened to some of the representatives of the government, the mullahs, talk about their view of world citizenship and world peace. They experience a feeling of humiliation and disregard in the way the U.S. position towards the Middle East insists unilaterally on assuming the Israeli perspective, when other ways of looking reveal great injustice towards the Palestinians. I felt as I listened that there was pain behind the anger. Perhaps some of Sister Ellen's angry readers are also in pain. We need to recognize globally that Peace is our challenge and our goal, to embrace the complexity of attaining it. We are all in for a lot of loss as the planet shrinks. THank you, Sister Ellen Francis for saying so clearly what you saw.

SET THIS IN STONE:
WITOUT JUSTICE, THERE WILL BE NO PEACE - NOT NOW, NOT IN ANOTHER 60 YEARS, AND NOT IN A MILLENIUM.

And justice is something that is most lacking in a certain piece of land in the middle east that has surpassed the atrocities of South Africa's apartheid regime.

Ms Ellen Francis has done a great service by her observations. Unfortunately, I know she has already been blacklisted by the powerful sources that have so brainwashed the past few generations that a lie so often repeated has turned into a fact

Hey Anti-C (aka Iranian ex-pat) I hate to tell you this: BUT IRAN IS THE WORLD'S NUMBER ONE EXPORTER OF TERRORISM BY PROXY IN THE WORLD:

Let's look at a partial list that the Iranian IRG and its accomplices the murderous mullahs have had their hands in:

1. Khobar Towers bombing
2. bombing of the Buenos Aires synagogue,
3. USS Cole bombing
4. 9/11 Hijackers passed through Iran on their way to the US
5. TWA 847-the brutal torture and murder of Navy Diver Stetham of Waldorf, Maryland, WHERE THOSE IRANIAN HIZBOLLAH DEVILS JUMPED ON HIS BODY, THEN SHOT HIM AND THREW HIS BODY OUT ON THE TARMAC.
6. Iranian involvement in Pan Am 103 Lockerbie bombing
7. Arming the Taliban, arming al-Qaeda in Iraq
8. Aiding al-Qaeda in Iraq, holding al-Qaeda leaders in Iran, and refusing to turn them over

THE LIST GOES ON AND ON, ALL THE WAY BACK TO 1979, WHEN THE IRANIANS TOOK 89 AMERICAN HOSTAGES FOR 444 DAYS

IRAN HAS TO BE PUT OUT OF BUSINESS-PERMANENTLY, AND IF TAKES A NUCLEAR STRIKE TO DO IT, THEN SO BE IT, THE WORLD WILL TRULY HAVE SOMETHING LIKE PEACE IN THE WORLD WHEN IRAN IS TAKEN OUT. THE PROBLEM IS, THE IRANIANS DON'T UNDERSTAND, OR RESPOND TO ANYTHING OTHER THAN FORCE-AND THAT THEY WILL GET. THE IRANIANS DON'T NEGOTIATE, THEY DON'T COMPROMISE, IT'S EITHER THEIR WAY OR THE HIGHWAY, TO BELIEVE OTHERWISE IS SIMPLY STUPID, AND NAIVE (AND THAT'S YOU, ELLEN). THE IRANIANS MAKE PROMISES TO THE WORLD'S LEADERS, BUT LIKE THE ROGUE STATE THEY ARE, THEY LIE AS EASILY AS THEY BLINK THEIR EYES-THEY PROMISE THAT THEIR NUCLEAR REACTORS ARE FOR "PEACEFUL" PURPOSES, YET, THEY CONTINUE TO ENRICH URANIUM, AND THWART THE IAEA INSPECTORS. THE ENTIRE MIDDLE EAST IS NOW ARMED TO THE TEETH, IN A DIVIDE AND CONQUER STRATEGY AGAINST IRAN-THE SAUDIS, UAE, EGYPT AND JORDAN JUST GOT BILLIONS IN NEW MILITARY HARDWARE. NATO'S NEW MISSILE DEFENSE SHIELD (WHICH ALL THE NATO MEMBERS UNANIMOUSLY AGREED ON) WHICH WILL BE BUILT IN THE CZECH REPUBLIC IS BEING BUILT, SOLELY ON ACCOUNT OF IRAN.

So, Ellen dear, don't give us this BS ABOUT THINGS YOU KNOW ABSOLUTELY NOTHING ABOUT-IRAN ABSOLUTELY IS THE ENEMY. IRAN IS EVIL TO THE CORE, AND THE SOONER THEY ARE PUT OUT OF BUSINESS, THE BETTER.

What a load of crap

things change, people change and when people change they can change from good to bad and the other way around. if the iranians wanted peace, they would not refine uranium and accept Israel as a mid east state, but they are refining uranium and they do want Israel gone, and that is iran's fault, no one elses...

Eventually a correct analysis contrasting the huge disinformation campaign against Iran, a lovely and hospitable country that everybody should visit.

Well, where is the evidence of supposed Iranian misdeeds in Iraq? Are there any Iranian prisoners or "defectors" giving statements to support the claims? No. (not even a new "Curveball"). Has the Bush administration even given any pictures or other media to the press to support the claims? No. It's all conjecture and speculation. Once again, shades of the old WMD, isn't it? With 150 or 160 thousand US troops in Iraq plus another 200,000 or so contractors, you mean the USA cannot seal the border and keep things out? No. Sure seems odd, doesn't it? As for the State Dept list of "supporters of terrorism," it's all the political enemies of the USA. Venezuela for one (yeah, Chavez is a real military threat to the USA, right), and Cuba for another (another big "threat"). And, of course, Iran. But, none of the big USA supporters on the list at all. Even China got taken off the list. Saudi Arabia, where the 911 attackers came from, not on the list. Egypt, well known for practicing torture and political oppression, not on the list. And, lastly, just where is Osama Bin Laden, once again the answer is No. No, he cannot be found. As for the Iranian threat, you've got Israel to the South with 200 nukes, America to the West with 160,000 troops. What would you do?

ANTICLIMACUS:

OK, I'll address this directly to you.

I actually agree with you. It isn't Iran. It's the Nazis who took over Lebanon, and who are sending suicide bombers throughout the mideast, and who are murdering American soldiers.

At least we agree on something. Now can we be friends?

I made a reply to your previous post. It 'was received and is pending approval by the owner of the blog.' It may have been too long. Anyway, that's it for me. Sorry to keep you all in suspense.

E.K., Tom,

Why don't you bother making arguments? If you want to abuse me, why don't you at least address your abuse to me?

Thank you, Arlene, for having enough pride in your intellect to answer arguments.

Hello,
Your article implies some new and/or peaceful ideas for future Iranian people and the whole World. I think we need to say: 'let the İranian People...make, manage, struggle...'As we think 'let the buyer...., let the World ...etc.'
Greetings.
Dr. Necmettin ÖZEL
Turkiye

Hello,
Your article implies some new and/or peaceful ideas for future Iranian people and the whole World. I think we need to say: 'let the İranian People...make, manage, struggle...'

Dr. Necmettin ÖZEL
Turkiye

Hello,
Your article implies some new and/or peaceful ideas for future Iranian people and the whole World. I think we need to say: 'let the İranian People...make, manage, struggle...'As we think 'let the buyer...., let the World ...etc.'
Greetings.

Dr. Necmettin ÖZEL
Turkiye

"I'm totally with you on this anticlimacus person. His imagination is running wild. The truth means nothing to him."

I think he just changed his name to "Joseph".

Tom,
Yeah, Iran didn't do it. The Nazis did it.

In attacking Iran, Bush set the stage for a revival of the relationship between Tehran and Baghdad. With the secular Saddam gone, it was inevitable that Tehran would make diplomatic overtures to Baghdad. No doubt, this has left Washington and Tel Aviv squealing, as they try to come up with "evidence" of Iranian misdeeds. And, now with the war a stalemate, the only thing the USA has left is to turn Iran into a "bogeyman." Well, it's not going to work. The National Intelligence Estimate already proved your lie, Mr. Bush. As for "terrorism," how can the USA support and fund the Israeli military and her incursions into Palestinian territory. Day after day, the stories are so sad. To get one supposed Palestinian terrorist, Israeli will kill many civilians (women and children) who happened to "get in the way." This is clearly a violation of the Geneva Conventions and a war crime in itself. Oh, is "justice" only for the ones we don't like, the Iranians, but not for our "friends," sure does look that way, doesn't it!

Arlene,
I'm totally with you on this anticlimacus person. His imagination is running wild. The truth means nothing to him.

Tom R.,

You write that Iran supports the 'most violent, anti-peace, and extremist forces in the Middle East.'

The most violent, anti-peace, and extremist force in the Middle East is the Israeli army. The second most violent, anti-pease, and extremist force in the Middle East is the American army.

The fact that these are nuclear powers puts them in a league of their own. The fact that Israel is not a member of the NPT makes it one of the most obvious dangers to world peace. The fact that America is designing (and builidng?) a new generation of nuclear weapons, in contravention of its treaty obligations, makes it another obvious danger to world peace.

ANTICLIMICAS, It is not for you or for me to determine what is baseless. The arrest warrants were issued as a result of an extensive investigation by Argentina. The evidence was presented to Interpol which found it compelling. That's why Interpol issued the warrants.

Why are you so intent on ignoring facts and using your wild imagination to make up stories about Nazis when the evidence clearly points a finger at Iran?

I strongly suspect that every one of your postings on this board has not a grain of truth to it.

Arlene,

I didn't dispute that Interpol is pursuing a request by a member country, Argentina. What I said was that the underlying charges are baseless, which you would know if you'd read more than the first few paragraphs of news items about this matter.

Please don't pretend that the connection between Nazis and South America is novel to you. Everyone knows that many Nazis sought refuge in South America, and that the South American right wing has a notorious history of antisemitism.

Check your facts, and you might stop unwittingly defending murderers.

Anticlimacus, my accusation is baseless??? It wasn't Iran, it was Nazis???? I think it's time for you to stop your lies. Don't you have anything better to do with your life than to defend murders?

Interpol seeks former Iranian officials

PARIS (AP) — Iran will appeal Interpol's requests for the arrest of five prominent Iranians and a Lebanese militant sought in connection with Argentina's worst terrorist attack, an Iranian official said Thursday.

The six are wanted in Argentina in the 1994 bombing of a Jewish cultural center in Buenos Aires.

Interpol said Thursday that it would help Argentina seek their arrests internationally,......

Jeff:

In addition to all the benefits you mentioned that America gets from its $20 billion a year to Israel, you forgot to mention all the spies which no other ally is thoughtful enough to send.

Anonymous:

Your easy indentification of Iran with Nazi Germany shows how much you like to write things in a public forum, and how little you like what you believe to be true. If Sister Ellen had visited Nazi Germany, could she have reported the pride of minority groups in having representation in Parliament?

Put more simply, is there evidence that the Islamic republic is aware of a Jewish population and not actively trying to evict it? If the answer is yes, then any comparison to Nazi Germany is idiotic, and you yourself are an idiot.

In response to E.K.,

You wrote that Iran is supporting something called the 'Sadr brigades.' This conflation is a product of your ignorant mind, combining vague familiarity with 'the Badr brigades' and the Mahdi Army of Muqtada al-Sadr.

I won't get into the specifics, because it would hurt your head. Simply put, those two groups your imagination sewed together have actually been fighting pitched gun battles all over Iraq.

If you haven't been following the news closely enough to know who is even fighting whom in Iraq, then I respectfully ask you to find a message board on Nickelodeon.com.

Leave the forum of serious discussion to people who know a minimum of what they're talking about.

Arlene,

Your accusation is completely baseless. There are homegrown Nazi movements in Argentina for more likely to have been responsible for the bombings than Hezbollah, to say absolutely nothing of Iran.

Let me try to understand your thinking behind this. ...... Iran ....... something bad ..... ergo, Iran is the cause of something bad.

As a corollary: .... Iran.... something else bad ... therefore, Iran caused that too. You can see, by extending this logic in a similar manner, Iran is actually responsible for -every- bad thing in the world. You would think I'm caricaturing your position, except for good old SCHMETTERLING who actually said exactly that.

You're not even trying to prove your point; isn't that proof that your statements are made in a climate where Iran is presumed guilty of everything? If it was just mass hysteria, then God help you, but isn't the reality more obvious?

The government wants to go to war with Iran and is doing the public relations work to make that war possible. Even if you still want to condemn Iran, realise that you're actually swimming with the tide here, and all manner of lies can easily slip by with one truth.

SCHMETTERLING: (a wonderful Dickensian name. Please tell me you made it up- that would great creativity. I hope it isn't your real name- the face that such a hysterical curmudgeon grew into a name like SCHMETTERLING is somehow too sad even for pity.)

I'd just like to point out that if you want to use State Department reports as arguments against Iran, I might as well use Ministry of Information announcements to defend it. You actually accuse Ms Francis of repeating a mantra, when your most recent rant is mainly propaganda copy-and-pasted from one of the belligerents. Do you know the origin of the word hypocrite? It was originally used to describe those who would hold others to a standard they refuse to apply to themselves.

Last year, Interpol issued arrest warrants for the mullahs who were in charge of Iran in the 90's. According to the warrant, they financed and planned two terrorist explosions (executed by Hezbollah)in Buenos Aires that resulted in the murders of 472 people - men, women, children. The mullahs in control of the current regime reject the warrants and continue to protect the perpetrators.

Is this the "human, loving, hospitable face" of this woman's mullahs? Some of the blood of the many victims of Iranian-sponsored terrorism throughout the ME and the world is on this woman's head for disseminating misleading, unsupported tripe such as this article. It's disgusting.

man, i hear some of you guys talk about how the islamic republic 'destroyed the ancient culture of iran.' if you had ever seriously reflected on culture- especially 'ancient culture'- you would know that it cannot be destroyed in one generation. if the original islamisation of iran did not destroy its culture, neither will the current one. if the first shi'a revolution in th 16th century didn't destroy iran's culture, neither will the second one in the late 20th century.

at least this type of comment makes me happy that iran and iran's culture are at least on the fringers of your radar map. but if you would deflect your attention to that mysterious word 'culture,' it may start to dawn on you why so much of the world considers america's belly-gazing, anhistorical, and anti-intellectual culture so close to barbarism.

I would dare say that the reason this administration is about to invade Iran is not only because of the oil lanes that run to the persian gulf, or because this administrations ally Israel feels threatened but because the Iranians have the audacity to use their authority as a sovereign state to change the currency in which they sell oil--from the green back to the euro, which of course would have a disasterous effect on our already tanking economy. This was the same thing that Saddam Hussein had intended to do and you see where that got him. America cannot continue to bomb everyone that abandons the rapidly falling dollar. This is just another failing foreign policy proposal that we can't afford, and the very proposal should have the American citizenry thinking about getting rid of all those people who are supposed to be representing our best interest in Washington this November...they have done this country and its people a real dis-service

Here, Ignorant Ellen, for your benefit, is the just today released report from the State Dept.'s Year End Look at State Sponsors of Terrorism-specifically IRAN-PLEASE READ THE LAST TWO PARAGRAPHS CAREFULLY-IRAN, IN ADDITION TO ALL THE DEADLY ACTS THEY ARE CARRYING OUT IN THE MIDDLE EAST, ARE ALSO HARBORING KEY AL-QAEDA OPERATIVES, AND REFUSING TO TURN THEM OVER:

IRAN

Iran remained the most active state sponsor of terrorism. Elements of its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) were directly involved in the planning and support of terrorist acts throughout the region and continued to support a variety of groups in their use of terrorism to advance their common regional goals. Iran provides aid to Palestinian terrorist groups, Lebanese Hizballah, Iraq-based militants, and Taliban fighters in Afghanistan.

Iran remains a threat to regional stability and U.S. interests in the Middle East because of its continued support for violent groups, such as HAMAS and Hizballah, and its efforts to undercut the democratic process in Lebanon, where it seeks to build Iran’s and Hizballah’s influence to the detriment of other Lebanese communities.

Iran is a principal supporter of groups that are implacably opposed to the Middle East Peace Process, and continues to maintain a high-profile role in encouraging anti-Israel terrorist activity – rhetorically, operationally, and financially. Supreme Leader Khamenei and President Ahmadinejad praised Palestinian terrorist operations, and Iran provided Lebanese Hizballah and Palestinian terrorist groups, notably HAMAS, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command, with extensive funding, training, and weapons.

Despite its pledge to support the stabilization of Iraq, Iranian authorities continued to provide lethal support, including weapons, training, funding, and guidance, to some Iraqi militant groups that target Coalition and Iraqi security forces and Iraqi civilians. In this way, Iranian government forces have been responsible for attacks on Coalition forces. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)-Qods Force, continued to provide Iraqi militants with Iranian-produced advanced rockets, sniper rifles, automatic weapons, mortars that have killed thousands of Coalition and Iraqi Forces, and explosively formed projectiles (EFPs) that have a higher lethality rate than other types of improvised explosive devices (IEDs), and are specially designed to defeat armored vehicles used by Coalition Forces. The Qods Force, in concert with Lebanese Hizballah, provided training outside Iraq for Iraqi militants in the construction and use of sophisticated IED technology and other advanced weaponry. These individuals then passed on this training to additional militants inside Iraq, a “train-the-trainer” program. In addition, the Qods Force and Hizballah have also provided training inside Iraq. In fact, Coalition Forces captured a Lebanese Hizballah operative in Iraq in 2007.

Iran’s IRGC-Qods Force continued to provide weapons and financial aid to the Taliban to support anti-U.S. and anti-Coalition activity in Afghanistan. Since 2006, Iran has arranged a number of shipments of small arms and associated ammunition, rocket propelled grenades, mortar rounds, 107mm rockets, and plastic explosives, possibly including man-portable air defense systems (MANPADs), to the Taliban.

Iran remained unwilling to bring to justice senior al-Qa’ida (AQ) members it has detained, and has refused to publicly identify those senior members in its custody. Iran has repeatedly resisted numerous calls to transfer custody of its AQ detainees to their countries of origin or third countries for interrogation or trial. Iran also continued to fail to control the activities of some AQ members who fled to Iran following the fall of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan.

ONCE AGAIN, LIKE A MANTRA, IRAN IS THE SOURCE, FROM WHICH ALL TERRORISM FLOWS....

Ellen: I got news for you: YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT THE HELL YOU ARE TALKING ABOUT. SERIOUSLY.

IRAN IS THE SOURCE, FROM WHICH ALL TERRORISM FLOWS, IN SOME FORM, IN SOME FASHION, IT ALL PASSES THROUGH, THE ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF IRAN.

I have said this many many many times on the Post's blog. Iran is the greatest threat to world peace today, and it must be stopped from EVER gaining nuclear weapons-EVER. And that will take, the military surgical strike-THE SOONER THAT HAPPENS THE BETTER OFF THE ENTIRE WORLD WILL BE, BECAUSE IRAN'S INTENTIONS OF REGIONAL HEGEMONY IN THE ME ARE AS DISINGENUOUS AS THEY ARE MALIGNANT-AND THOSE AIMS OF HEGEMONY ARE TO FURTHER THEIR GOALS OF EXTINGUISHING THE US AND ISRAEL.

President Bush was very wrong about Iraq. BUT HE IS OH SO RIGHT ON IRAN, THE TWO SITUATIONS ARE COMPLETELY DIFFERENT, IRAN AND IRAQ-DON'T MAKE THE MISTAKE OF CONFUSING THE TWO.

Death to America. The Holocaust didn't happen. Stone to death homosexuals. $Billions in weapons, cash, and, training to Hezbollah, Hamas, the Sadr Brigades. Suicide bombers galore and glorified.

Ah, yes indeed. The lovely, lovely, peace-seeking mullahs.

To Unveiled Truth, you can always take a few stories and generalize it to demonize a whole population. Similarly, outside of the U.S., people can look at the stories of the the christian sect in Texas and come away thinking that christians are impregnating and brutalizing minors.

Now I'm sure you agree that we would tell them that not all of us are radical christians, wouldn't we?

Not all catholic priests (our mullahs) are child molesters, despite what a lot of less informed people of other countries and our own believe.

So please try to appeal to people's common sense rather than playing to their fears. By doing so, you help our image here and also hide your ignorance.

You are right Islam is the enemy and the following is what it is all about:

Her crime was to fall in love. She paid with her life

Guardian UK: Rand Abdel-Qader, 17, told her closest friend that she was in love from the moment she set eyes on the young British soldier working alongside her in Basra, and she dreamed of a future with him.

It was an innocent infatuation but five months after Rand, a student of English at Basra University, met Paul, a 22-year-old soldier posted to southern Iraq, she was dead. She was stamped on, suffocated and stabbed by her father. Several brutal knife wounds punctured her slender, bruised body - from her face to her feet. He had done it, he proclaimed to the neighbours who soon gathered round, to ‘cleanse his honour’.

And as Rand was put into the ground, without ceremony, her uncles spat on her covered corpse because she had brought shame on the family. Her crime was the worst they could possibly imagine - she had fallen in love with a British soldier and dared to talk to him in public...

Dear Sister,
With all due respect, it's not the people of Iran I fear. It's the government.

Group-think is a reality. Individuals who would never hurt a soul will kill if pressed by a larger group.

Someday I dream of there will be a peace courtroom where representatives of nations will be given a fair trial and aggression will be tempered by justice. I am humbled to see how much rage was stirred by Sister Ellen Francis' honest report of her experience over many years with Iran and its people. In Iran on one of the delegations she speaks of, I listened to some of the representatives of the government, the mullahs, talk about their view of world citizenship and world peace. They experience a feeling of humiliation and disregard in the way the U.S. position towards the Middle East insists unilaterally on assuming the Israeli perspective, when other ways of looking reveal great injustice towards the Palestinians. I felt as I listened that there was pain behind the anger. Perhaps some of Sister Ellen's angry readers are also in pain. We need to recognize globally that Peace is our challenge and our goal, to embrace the complexity of attaining it. We are all in for a lot of loss as the planet shrinks. THank you, Sister Ellen Francis for saying so clearly what you saw.

Somebody please look at the front page of the Washington Post today. It has a photo by the AP of a man who is holding up his dead son who was crushed in his own home by a US bomb.

Please look at this photo and tell me who the aggressors are in the world today?

Please tell me at what point did we become child-killers?

That man who is holding his lifeless son was probably celebrating the downfall of Saddam. Little did he or any of us know how brutal and murderous this regime of ours is her in the US.

Then we wonder why the world hates us. The reason is because our leaders are guilty of war crimes. Additionally, they are guilty of treason here in the US, where they have lied, cheated, corrupted, and bankrupted our once mighty and prosperous nation.

Lastly, these comments come from a registered, and once-proud republican who was foolish to vote for these criminals once, but not more than that. Wake up nation! These criminals are marching us towards another war, where countless other innocents will be slaughtered.

If Ellen Francis were around in the 1930's, we would have been subjected to an article entitled "Germany is Not the Enemy".

The Post demeans itself by accepting such an inane piece of trash.

If this woman would go to Iranian-sponsored Hizbullah-land I'm sure she could find a "sweet" mullah on the street there too. Oh how peace-loving Hizbullah is! How naive (and dangerously ignorant) this woman is!!

Hank said: " Why is Israel out ally? What do we get from our alliance with Israel except billions of dollars poorer, and hated by millions and millions of people, that otherwise, would at worst, not think of us at all. Do we have access to israels' vast natural resources? Do we have a staunch ally, fighting shoulder to shoulder on the battlefield? Do we recieve monetary support from israel, or cutting edge technology that we can't do without? No, the fact is we get NOTHING from our "ally" except spied on."
--------------------------------------

Hank: that is one of the most myopic, willfully-uninformed comments I've ever seen on the Post boards. I'm not a strong supporter of the Israeli government, but there are obviously a lot of benefits the U.S. government gets from Israel. For starters, a the Israelis pass on an enormous amount of intelligence about the countries surrounding it; they also provide a solid, comfortable base for the U.S. military when in need; and a big economic trading partner.

All that is not to say that we should be spending as much as we do on aid to Israel, or that we should be seen as an unfailing ally to their government at all times. However, to say we get nothing from them is ridiculous.

Justin,

I'm afraid you are misinformed. I would love to hear your answer to "How many wars have we started in the last 50 years?" But, alas, I will answer for you:

Vietnam: North Vietnamese/ Viet Cong invade South Vietnam in an effort to reunite the two halves under Communist rule. The US goes from advising the South Vietnamese military with around 700 troops to full scale military involvement in accordance with the South East Asia Treaty Organization obligations under Kennedy.

Grenada: After a Communist Coup takes American students and doctors hostage, the US invades to free it's citizens and restore the Democratic Gov't.

Panama: I'll give you that one. Other than protecting the canal from being managed by a drug lord, we really didn't have a good reason to depose Noriega

Iraq 1: After invading Kuwait and pillaging it, UN forces led by the US, at the request of Saudi Arabia, retook Kuwait and restored it's sovereignty.

Somalia: US forces deployed under a UN resolution to stop a humanitarian crisis.

Bosnia: NATO bombs Serb positions to stop ethnic cleansing of Bosnians

Kosovo: Same as above

Iraq 1.5: Iraq refuses to abide by cease fire agreements sparking various military strikes by coalition forces for several years

Afghanistan: Taliban Government of Afghanistan allows Al-Qaeda to attack US civilian and military installations on 9/11/01. The US responds by invading/assisting locals in deposing Taliban Gov't. Efforts continue to defeat Taliban guerrillas.

Iraq 2: Iraq continues to defy UN resolutions and cease-fire agreement that paused the first Gulf War. US re-invades to remove Saddam Hussein and eliminate suspected WMD's.

Iraq 2.5: With defeat of Saddam Hussein, the US is continuing to try to stabilize the new Iraqi Gov't with limited success.

My point is that other than Panama, the US has not invaded or started a war without either being attacked first or receiving UN authorization. In the case of Iraq 2, while the UN did not explicitly permit the US to invade, Iraq was in breach of the terms that PAUSED (not ended)the 1st Gulf War. Whether or not all the other reasons were valid for going back to war, the cease fire was null and void and was more than reason enough.

To A Kuhn-- Why is Israel out ally? What do we get from our alliance with Israel except billions of dollars poorer, and hated by millions and millions of people, that otherwise, would at worst, not think of us at all. Do we have access to israels' vast natural resources? Do we have a staunch ally, fighting shoulder to shoulder on the battlefield? Do we recieve monetary support from israel, or cutting edge technology that we can't do without? No, the fact is we get NOTHING from our "ally" except spied on. Our "ally" has been spying on us, and stealing our secrets for decades. Not the act of an ally I think. People like you need to stop blindly accepting what our government tells you, and look at reality. The fact is, we would be much better off if we had no relationship with israel at all.

Finally an article that gives an honest look at iranian society. I've never been to Iran, but I have researched it as thoroughly as possible, and the Iran I discovered is nothing like the one that is protrayed by our war mongering government. The majority of iranians are under 35 and are a very intellegent and progressive people. They love western ways and are increasingly disenchanted by their theocratic rule. They are historically non aggressive, and as far as I could find do not start wars. Even when the took our embassy personel hostage for interfering in their internal affairs, and we did, they never killed anyone. Our government is lying to us about Iran in order to try and continue their illegal war for oil, and the security of israel. If there were ever a muslim country where democracy could sprout and flourish, it is Iran, but it will never happen while they face the real threat of attack by the US. It will only happen if we leave them alone. I urge everyone to research the real Iran and stop listening to the propaganda being put out by our lying government.

Ellen Francis wrote, "...based on my experiences, I believe there is absolutely no justification or rational cause for military intervention or sanctions against Iran." This limited statement is true. But we adults know that there's more to know about Iran than what Ellen Francis has experienced. I do wonder why Ellen Francis didn't comment on the Iranian nuclear program, or the Iranian prime minister's threat to remove Israel from the map. I hope Ellen Francis is doing all she can to foster representative democratic government in Iran so the nice people she met there can use political power to make the government of their country nice, too.

Reading through the comments on this article I'm unfortunately not surprised by the majority of the responses. Unfortunate as I'm become accustomed to the ill informed, hypocritical and destructive ideas of my of my countrymen (and women). Most of you read the article but don't really get it. You don't really take an honest look at our country's foreign policy. According to the vast majority of Americans, everything our country does is good for the world. Unfortunately this is not the case. World polls point to most of the world viewing our country as the most dangerous country in the world, not Iran or any other in the Middle East. How many wars have we started in the last 50 years? Many. How many wars has Iran started in the last 50, 100? None. Yet somehow from our prospective, Iran (and before that Iraq) a country thousands of miles away from us is a massive threat to the security of the United States. So we are ready to bomb and invade ( and nuke them if need be) them in the name of democracy and the never ending fight on terror. The policys work against each other. You cannot install true democracy by force and you cannot rid the world of terrorism by only force of arms.
As far as Iran's apparent threat to Israel, that to is overstated by everyone including our illustrious leader George Bush who is know to never exagerate anything. Israel has proven itself very adept and defending it's borders. It has the most powerful and advanced army and airforce in the Middle East. It has hundreds of nuclear warheads. And it has the United States as it's protectorate. Israel and the United States could nuke the entire region if insanely chose to. Yet Iran is a huge threat to world peace, the biggest threat since Iraq, the other country with supposed WMD's. Unbelievable.

Funny. Not a single word about Iranian weapons, money, and training for the most violent, anti-peace, and extremist forces in the Middle East.

We tried regime change in Iran in 1953, putting the brutal, hated Shah in power. The blowback is what we are now faced with. We are not so innocent here. Now Iran wants to develop nuclear power, perhaps nuclear weapons, and we worry that such an "evil" regime cannot be trusted with nuclear weapons. True enough, perhaps. But given our own history of overthrowing other countries' governments and of being the only country in history to actually use atomic weapons (as well as contemplating their use in Vietnam), can WE be trusted with them? Are we, too, part of an "axis of evil"?

I'm sure Iran has a wonderful culture. However, this is not the point. The U.S. is not threatening to bomb Iran because of its culture, but because of the danger it poses to our ally Israel.

Israel is a small country that does not border Iran or even border a country that borders Iran. But Iran's elected president puts a lot of energy into demanding the destruction of Israel and supporting violence against it. Because of this behavior and the way Iran taunts the west with a nuclear program that could produce nuclear weapons, Iran is clearly a threat.

This policy is self-destructive for Iran because it puts Iran in danger of war with the U.S. over an issue that isn't really important to the Iranian people. Even the anti-war candidate Hillary Clinton has considered the possibility of a U.S. nuclear attack against Iran. Personally, if I had to choose between the annihilation of Iran and the annihilation of Israel, I'd chose the annihilation of Iran. However, there is no reason anyone should be annihilated. If Iran's government wouldn't insist on making Israel an issue, then the U.S. wouldn't have a reason to threaten Iran.

Rather than convincing Americans to drop their prejudices against Iran, Iran's best strategy is to drop its self-destructive policies.

I notice that Sr. Francis does not mention Israel, that embarrassingly tough little country that Liberals wish would just go away, as does Iran's leadership. Of course the Jews of Iran are allowed to exist; they do so only by loudly (if insincerely) opposing Israel. We are not Zionists, they say. However, many of them have relatives living in Israel and sooner or later they will follow, because Iran is not a place tolerant to people of other religions. Let's not forget how the Baha'is of Iran were all but wiped out by Muslim extremists. Is this the kinder and gentler Iran that you wish us to believe in?

While you were in Iran, by the way, did you go see that charming anti-semitic cartoon contest promoted by the Iranian government? And did you make it to the Holocaust Denial conference? Did any of your mullah friends discuss with you how the forgery "Protocols of Zion" is actually true and that almost no Jews died during the Nazi era?

Perhaps you might wish to visit southern Lebanon and witness the effects of Iranian money and arms on that country. Several thousand Lebanese died a couple of years ago in an unprovoked and senseless war against Israel triggered by Iran-funded extremists. It is highly likely that another war is about to occur as the Iranian funded thugs of Hezbollah build up their war machine once again.

The Episcopal Church should be ashamed of you, Ellen Francis. Perhaps you should focus on matters that are more consistent with your training and skills, such as helping the poor or spreading Christianity among the Muslims. Ah, but were you to do such a thing, the Iranians would have you arrested and thrown out of the country.

I have read many articles like yours past a few months.

However, our hospitality must not be confused with weakness. After all we survived the Greek Arsonist, hording Arabs and Mongols, and defeated the English (bloodlessly)

For every one nice article - there are 100's of voices in USA to Nuke Iran. I believe need for violence is part of American culture.

Politeness is considered a weakness in USA. I do not live in Iran, I have been living in your country since 1974, so I have somewhat of first hand experience.

I do not know who the guy in the picture is with you - but he believes god created countries. I have news for him. God created humans and humans created countries..

Best regards
Freidoon

I have read many articles like yours past a few months.

However, our hospitality must not be confused with weakness. After all we survived the Greek Arsonist, hording Arabs and Mongols, and defeated the English (bloodlessly)

For every one nice article - there are 100's of voices in USA to Nuke Iran. I believe need for violence is part of American culture.

Politeness is considered a weakness in USA. I do not live in Iran, I have been living in your country since 1974, so I have somewhat of first hand experience.

I do not know who the guy in the picture is with you - but he believes god created countries. I have news for him. God created humans and humans created countries..

Best regards
Freidoon

I thank the author for an insightful article that goes against the grain and the herd mentality. Having someone experience living in a society before making decisions is certainly more important than listening to so-called academicians who may have expertise in something like one particular detail of foreign policy in which they earned a PhD and then making all of the foreign policy decisions.

A commentator mentioned the author is living in a diferent world. I would have to agree with that.First, there is the real world which you can experience by obtaining the facts like the author of this article has done honorably, and then there is the alternative method which more than 99% of people follow: they let the media decide for them what to think. And the media is anything but fair as any 4th grader could tell you, especially when it comes to issues regarding middle east.

The author and several commnetators mentioned that Iranians like Americans, but they don't like the Ameican policies. Why don't the Americans return the favor and find something to like about the Iranians?

Dear Ellen;

What a great posting. I wish more Americans would make their own decisions based on facts as oppose to relying on Media to conclude what their opinion should be.

Thank you and God bless.

Jay Farr

Dear Ellen;

What a great posting. I wish more Americans would make their own decisions based on facts as oppose to relying on Media to conclude what their opinion should be.

Thank you and God bless.

Jay Farr

Dear Ellen;

What a great posting. I wish more Americans would make their own decisions based on facts as oppose to relying on Media to conclude what their opinion should be.

Thank you and God bless.

Jay Farr

In the 1930s no one took what Hilter said seriously. Big mistake. One should read what the Iranina government says, what the Iranian military writes, and what the religious leaders say. Personally, they scare the hell out of me.

Wake up and smell the roses. Iran is on a march to develop a nuclear capability. Their strategy is to pin down the US in Iraq and at the same time increase their influence in the region.

Iran will not be deterred by negotiation. Negotiation is simply a check box that must be marked off.

The fundamental miscalculation is they do not recognize that a super power can walk and chew gum at the same time, and while our Army and Marines are stretched, our Navy and Air Force are basically at peace.

I wouldn’t be traveling to Iran for awhile.

It seems such a travesty that some nations rely on local TV broadcasts to infom themselves. If people traveled more they could actually see the world, and not rely on sponsered cronies who act as journalists (brought to you by GE and exxon!)
Any act of war would be a total disaster, and not just for Iran, but for the US and its people...preseve us from Bush and his 'hitleristic' tendencies.

It seems such a travesty that some nations rely on local TV broadcasts to infom themselves. If people traveled more they could actually see the world, and not rely on sponsered cronies who act as journalists (brought to you by GE and exxon!)
Any act of war would be a total disaster, and not just for Iran, but for the US and its people...preseve us from Bush and his 'hitleristic' tendencies.

This article sums up perfectly and succinctly my own experience and views of the on-the-ground nature of the iranian mentality and the ironic sadness involved when i think of the lack of communications between Iran and the US.
Iranians love America, just the government doesn't.
And american media never portrays that side, so it is hard for the American folks to know the real feelin g on the ground ver there.
It is a deep irony that Iran could be such a great Ally to the US, yet it is portrayed as it's worst enemy, and the pot is being stirred by the hardliners on both sides that have a vested interest in war and hawkish position...these are people who stand to profit from such things, and unfortunately, are getting their way currently
I hope we can overcome the fear-based propagand to find messages like this one, based on actual experience and real truth, rising above eye level and winning nations through to forge alliances, not bombs
x

You should tell that to the people of Buenos Aires who suffered two Iranian bombs in 1993 and 1994, or Lebanon for that matter. Fortunately the man behind the attacks died like a dog in Syria even though he was hiding under Assad's bed. Sooner or later your Iranian friends and their creatures in Syria and Lebanon will do the dance of the crucified. The author is a useful idiot.

I have to congradulate the author to write such a nice and open minded column in a day that all journalists are under pressure to be anti Iran. the notion of Iran being a part of an "axis of evil" didnt make sense to me from the begening anyways knowing that the U.S. government will lable countries (and groups) with different names when they dont agree. I hope more people in America realize the truth and stop the madness commited by our government.

Hurrah for Ellen Francis and "BOO" to our idiotic government.Unfortunately, our noodleheads have neither the desire nor the ability to meet and discuss issues as "equals".

Iran is its own country with its own aims - the Iranian people have always appeared friendly (for the most part) towards Americans (all that I have meet (under a dozen) have been very polite and friendly) but I do remember that after 9-11 that hundreds of thousands made protest against the bombers and in support of America. Also, during our fight with the Taliban, they offered safe landing on their soil for any American fighter aircraft if it was damaged and needed help.
I do not believe Iran would ever use a nuclear bomb against anyone (Israel included) but I do believe they desire one (and in all honesty, if I was in their position, I would too.)

More liberal tripe. Notice that Ms Francis does not address Iran's nuclear program, flouting of UN sanctions, intentional destabalizing of Iraq and support for terrorist groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah (you know the guys who blew up the Marine baracks in Lebanon and the Khobar Towers).

Of course, all it takes to get published at the Post is any anti-American viewpoint. I mean does this piece have anything to do with "Faith" at all?

This is the biggest load of pie-in-the-sky bulls**t I've seen in a long, long time. This author's guilability rivals that of Jimmy Carter. Of course the Iranians are gonna sweetly smile in your face and tell you EXACTLY what you wanna hear. The facts are ...

1) They are sending their weapons across the border to kill our troops, Iraqi Army troops, and Iraqi civilians

2) They are actively training shiite extremists from Iraq

3) They are the world's biggest financier and facilitator of international terrorism.

If that's not an "enemy", I don't know what is. Wake up, Ellen. You're suffering from a common affliction among liberals, which is the tendency to see the world as we wish it could be and not as it is.

Theres nothing wrong with the Iranian people or the country itself, but the direction its headed with the current rulers is completely negative for irans future.

Iranians need to be able to voice their opinions freely and enjoy a free market.

The deteriorating situation in iran has caused hundreds of thousands of irans most intelligent workforce to abandon the country altogetherl. This isnt the type of trend that country needs to go toward!

The mollahs regime must go!

Too bad the author didn't have time to vist Evin Prison, to watch hanging, stonings, and the sham of "free elections" where the government simply disqualified candidates they didn't like. She obviously never chatted with Akbar Ganji or any of the students or journalists in prison for things like holding up a friend's bloody shirt and getting photographed (the shirt was bloody because of a government crackdown on protestors). Well, that's understandable. A lot of them "mysteriously" die in prison so that makes it really hard to find one to talk to. Too bad she never spoke with the families of soldiers and Iraqi citizens killed by Iran-produced weapons. Too bad she didn't notice that the same people responsible for holding Americans hostage for 444 days and for prolonging the Iran-Iraq war and sending youth to clear minefields with "keys to heaven" for when they got blown up--those same individuals are running the government of Iran right now. But hey, if you can find some friendly smiling people in a particular country, that proves that the country is so nice we should sit down and have tea with their leaders, right?

Too bad the author didn't have time to vist Evin Prison, to watch beheadings, stonings, and the sham of "free elections" where the government simply disqualified candidates they didn't like. She obviously never chatted with Akbar Ganji or any of the students or journalists in prison for things like holding up a friend's bloody shirt and getting photographed (the shirt was bloody because of a government crackdown on protestors). Well, that's understandable. A lot of them "mysteriously" die in prison so that makes it really hard to find one to talk to. Too bad she never spoke with the families of soldiers and Iraqi citizens killed by Iran-produced weapons. Too bad she didn't notice that the same people responsible for holding Americans hostage for 444 days and for prolonging the Iran-Iraq war and sending youth to clear minefields with "keys to heaven" for when they got blown up--those same individuals are running the government of Iran right now. But hey, if you can find some friendly smiling people in a particular country, that proves that the country is so nice we should sit down and have tea with their leaders, right?

What a lovely view of the world. I wish I lived in that world.
Unfortunately back here on planet Earth, the country of Iran is still firmly the backbone of what is most appropriately known as an "axis." Whether you think that axis is of evil or sunshine is, I suppose, dependent on whether you think homosexuals should (at the absolute least) be allowed to live (let alone have equal rights under the law, which they absolutely should as well). And please stop telling me the fairy tales of the "happy Jews of Tehran." Those are the Jews that are left after the rest fled for their lives and freedom, and honestly, I don't care if they have olives brought to them on silver platters and get daily foot massages from Ahmadinejad himself. That still does not translate into religious freedom. When you live in a fundamentalist autocracy like Iran, you may learn to deal, or you may be the privileged class that doesn't suffer, but what you aren't is truly free. This brain dead priest can obfuscate and equivocate all she wants, and if she thinks Iran is so great, by all means I encourage her to move there. But what I find particularly offensive is the minimization of the intense and daily struggle of the dissident population of Iran. There are men and women in Iran struggling in the underground to see real change in Iran's "sweet" mullahs. To one day see an Iran where women are treated as equals instead of cattle, where homosexuals can hold their heads high, where thugs like Ahmadinejad, hero of the children martyrs of the Iran-Iraq war (or as we in the civilized world call him, "murderer"), are marginalized as the monsters they are. Every time a useful idiot like this priest makes a "call for understanding," the "sweet" mullahs, champions of misogyny and dark ages barbarism (ever heard of a stoning?), take it as another victory and another overture to further suppress the free thinkers of Iran.
Maybe she's never heard of Syria and Lebanon, satellites of Iran's misanthropy. Maybe she's never met the Assad family, blood thirsty dictators of Syria, or Hizballah, the genocidal Nazi worshiping murderers who have taken Lebanon hostage in Iran's "good name." I might add, it's because of ignoramus' like her that the people on the street of Iran think "Bush wants to bomb us." They love Americans but hate our government. Newsflash, you simpleton, we feel the same way! We don't hate Persian people. We hate the blood thirsty and backwards Mullahs and corrupt ideologues who conduct insane policy in their name. Wow! We have something in common. You idiot. In case there's any unclarity here; sanctions and harsh talk are completely independent of Iran's desire to be a dark ages Caliphate. It wouldn't require any negotiations or any sort of olive branches for them to decide that they're not gonna enslave their women anymore and have an open free and fair democracy where religion doesn't ruin peoples lives. And when they do that, they'll magically find they have nothing to fear from the all omnipotent and evil Geroge Bush. Until then, apologists and enablers like the priest here just throw their hats in with the slime of humanity.
I wish there were more words in the English language to properly describe the type of spineless pandering and ignorance that goes into typing the words this priest has. She does a disservice to humanity by sinking so low.

Woow finally one people how knows the Iranian are the good people, and our problem is somewhere else. God bless Iran.

Intresting news

Enough with the pro-Iranian propaganda already! You were followed by minders, and only allowed to interact with the "Iranians" who were government agents.

Of course, I have never set foot in Iran myself and would never stoop to doing so, since Fox News tells me anything I would ever want to know about "those" countries, and so I feel justified in blithely yabbering on about human rights etc whenever it suits me and Fox News.

Thank you for your prospective, I have also found the exact same sendiments with Iran and her people. The lovliest people I have ever met. However, I am amazed by the demonization that Iran is subjected to by the American media, the NeoCon establishment, and the Jewish lobby AIPAC. This level of intense and deliberate demonization is quite tragic and a shame upon all of us human beings for allowing such false depiction of a nation because it disagrees with the occupation of the land of Palestine by Jews. I am not anti Jews and in fact have been spoken agains 2000 years of Jewish persecution by Europe, however, I am agains Palestinian persecution now by the Jewish people in occupied Palestine. The American congress is so frightened by the bulldog jewish community leaders in US that they VETO every UN attempt to force Israel to respect the basic living rights of the Palestinians in their homeland. The US support for this crises is tragic and had led to misrepresentation and demonization of Iran, intentionally lying about Iran and its intentions, and not allowing any - ANY - public debate about the true nature of Iran and Iranians and their history of kindness and fairness and justice. Everybody it seems ignores that this is the same nation that sent an army of 100,000 to free jews from captivity in Babylon and provide protection and a safe passage back to their homeland after 80 years of jewish imprisonment. How forgetful everybody can be. It serves NeoCons for US school children to leave high school barely able to read and write, let alone think clearly with knowledge of history.

Don't get me wrong. I have many Iranian friends here in the US. And they don't love the mullahs. They think the mullahs have destroyed the ancient culture of Iran, its tolerance and its rich history in the arts and philosophy. I agree with Mohamad so I don't know which Iran Ms. Francis saw or writes about.

very well written... let talks persist and peace be upon us all

Nice to know that Ms. Francis had a good time in Iran. But the fact remains that Iran has an extremely poor track record with regard to the treatment of minorities. Its persecution of followers of the Bahai faith is well known. Millions of Bahai had to escape from Iran because of harrassment and torture. Many were killed outright. Ms. Francsi should have asked the sweet mullah whether his sweetness extends to kafirs. Apart from mullahs with bloodshot eyes, sweet mullahs can be scary too.

oh my god! what a beautiful regime we have and untill now we did not know how to thanks mullahs for that!!!are you serious ELLEN you are sure that you were free in IRAN and all you said are the signs that there is democracy in IRAN? i just dont undrestand how simple you think!!?how small you compare .if iranianas are hospitable is because of their nature if fashion because they love western life style but this is not the regime's gift to them ,they should fight for the first rights of the human ?did you see the students captivated?did you see the people in depth of poverty?did you see the religiuos police?did you see the intelligent service men cahsing you?did you hit for the simple utterences about the poiition?which peace which goodness you talk about.????we iranians think you need to support freedom not closing your eyes and find a good solution that is shaking hand with the terror!!!!

What a nice feeling to read something nice and humane about Iran. I am from Iran leaving in US and it's really devastating to read all the negative propaganda about the country you were once very proud of. Deep down, we are people of many thousand years of civilization and we know that the history's unkindness will pass but I would like to ask the readers to empathize with your fellow humans. imagine similar propaganda about USA in 20 years from now when you Live in a country which is the world's superpower at that time- Wouldn't you hope that someone talks about all your positive accomplishments and contributions to the world?

Thank you

Unfortunately America's foreign policy has been hijacked by groups of neo-cons and Israeli lobbyists.