As was reported on Jim Lehrer's News Hour this evening, George and Laura Bush expressed concern and extended the American hand of aid and support to China today as the Chinese people and their leaders begin the task of recovering from a significant earthquake that struck southwest China.
Some Chinese parents are complaining bitterly that their children died in a school that was obliterated by the earthquake because the school was shoddily built and was not designed to withstand a predictable disaster.
Although the great majority of Americans do not endorse most of the actions and statements of George Bush, surely all Americans join him in expressing sorrow and compassion to the Chinese people whose children were obliterated in the earthquake in Chengdu.
But how is Iran related to Chengdu?
Iran has been so thoroughly demonized, and the American people have been so thoroughly propagandized about Iran, that it is probably safe to say that what most Americans can readily say about Iran is, "nuclear," "Ahmadinejad," and "wipe Israel off the map."
And that's a shame, in fact, a double-shame because the treacherous agenda of demonizing Iran is quite deliberate and it's egregiously dishonest.
Therefore, the purpose of this diary is to attempt to impress one or two more facts about Iran on the minds of Daily Kos readers.
Iran is home to 70 million people (or Mahmoud Ahmadinejad plus 69,999,999 other people) who live in situations ranging from very large and highly sophisticated cities like Tehran, whose population of 16 million makes it perhaps the largest city on earth; to mountain villages like Keng, with a population of fewer than 3,000; to Bakhtiari nomads who live in tents and migrate annually, as weather dictates, from mountain to desert.
Let's talk a bit more about Tehran. Only a decade or so ago, Tehran had a population of only 2 million. In a few short years, Tehran has absorbed a major proportion of population influxes driven by:
~a population boom produced during Iran's eight-year long war with Iraq;
~urbanization of remote villagers seeking better employment opportunities;
~refugees from war-torn Afghanistan, on Iran's eastern border;
~as many as half-a-million refugees from war-torn Iraq, on Iran's western border.
Tehran is situated at the base of the Alborz Mountains, in a very unstable earthquake zone. Tehran's rapid growth and forced expansion has meant that the first goal of construction projects is rapidity, not quality or the ability to withstand earthquakes.
In other words, if Tehran were to experience a 6.6 earthquake -- the same intensity as the earthquake that struck Bam in 2003, causing the deaths of approximately 40,000 Iranians-- Tehran would be obliterated, together with her 16 million people.
America's leaders, decision-makers, and media portray Iran's leadership as "irrational" and driven almost solely by religious fanaticism; at a Feb. 21, 2008 hearing before the US State Department's Commission on International Religious Freedom, advisory editor to Christianity Today and Commission Chair Michael Cromartie fairly spat out his first question of panelist Barbara Slavin:
"Is he [Ahmadinejad] insane?"
Slavin's immediate reaction was an embarrassed laugh; human beings frequently laugh when it is otherwise inappropriate to cry. But all Americans should wail with embarrassment that a State Department functionary acting in their name should give voice to such an ill-informed question.
Yossi Melman, a writer for Israel's Haaretz newspaper reported in his biography of Ahmadinejad that when Ahmadinejad was provincial governor of one of Iran's mountain provinces and that province experienced a devastating earthquake, Ahmadinejad lead the area to reconstruct some 17,000 homes and businesses within 18 months. Heckuva job, Brownie.
As mayor of Tehran, Ahmadinejad, trained as a civil engineer/city planner, did manage to untangle at least a few of the city's hitherto totally unmanageable highway systems and furthered the efforts of the city of Tehran to incorporate more green spaces, playgrounds, and gazebos and parks for the people of Tehran to gather and recreate. Surely, all acts of insanity.
Many of Iran's cities and villages were devastated by bombings and Saddam's chemical attacks in the course of the eight-year war waged against Iran by Iraq. No Marshall Plan stepped in to aid Iran in her recovery and reconstruction efforts.
(Sidebar: as noted in "Legacy of Ashes," the vaunted "Marshall Plan" for reconstruction of Europe quickly deteriorated into a CIA-run program of arming putative anti-Soviet dissidents in numerous Eastern Europe countries. In almost every instance, "Legacy" author Tim Weiner writes, either the dissidents were killed or captured, or the arms and money delivered to "dissidents" ended up in the hands of Soviets who had co-opted the operations.)
So completely irrational are Iran's fanatical leaders that, in spite of the war-torn landscape they had to deal with, and in spite of the ongoing efforts of the United States to economically destroy Iran, Iranians have managed to:
~ Establish an industrial zone in the ancient city of Yazd. With its core a steel production plant purchased from and managed in partnership with Italian investors, Yazd is experiencing economic growth and reinvesting its resources in technological research to further grow its economy, while supporting and further investing in its strong tourism industry.
~ Qom, the "Vatican" of Iran, was a small town in the middle of a desert. In a 20+ year long project of development and investment, the entire region surrounding Qom has been irrigated and cultivated for agriculture, giving entrepreneurial opportunities to many and employment to many more.
~ Natanz is also on the edge of a desert and is home to several small villages. In order to keep back the desert that threatens to reclaim the extensive road systems, hundreds of thousands of bushes have been planted along miles and miles of desert terrain; forests have been located in areas where, once the now-15 year old growth is sufficiently mature, new homes can be built to relieve overcrowding in the large cities. Power lines from Iran's nuclear plant at Natanz already stretch from the plant to the site of these new cities in the desert.
To be sure, many an Iranian is extremely unhappy with his leadership, just as the Chinese victims of the earthquake are unhappy with their leadership. And Iranians are aware that religiously trained mullahs are not prepared by their religious training to handle the levers of political governance; nevertheless, the Iranian people have worked to influence their government and forced moderations and behaviors upon their leaders to the extent that Iranians believe they can, over time and with patience and intelligence, grow together into a governing-and-governed system that suits the needs and desires of the Iranian people.
Just as surely as all Americans join their president in expressing compassion for the people of Chengdu who have experienced the obliteration of their homes and their children's schools and lives, so too must Americans join their leaders, or would-be leaders, in the intent to obliterate the long-range industrial, agricultural, housing, and governing plans and projects of the insane, irrational, fanatical, evil leaders and people of Iran.
Bomb bomb bomb bomb bomb Iran.