Back in 2000, I married a beautiful Persian woman I met in college. Her family moved here in the mid 90s from Europe, having left Iran in the 80s when her father wanted to pursue business interests in a freer market. She had a much different view of the world than anyone I had ever known, and her lack of materialism was in stark contrast to the girls I had dated up to that point, especially in the SF Bay Area at the pinnacle of the internet and biotech boom.
Fast forward 7 years through 9-11, smoking guns in the form of mushroom clouds, I want to find the leakers, more lies, more war, more big oil profits. My life went from sheer bliss to uncertainty to where I am today: scared shitless and paranoid that someone is going to take her away when the bombs start to fall on Iran. How would you feel?
Below the fold is more panic-laden thoughts...this is only my second post so I'm still learning how all this works. Thanks for reading...
Update: Thanks to everyone for your kind words. I will hope for the best but prepare for the worst.
Let me first say that Iran is a screwed up country and is getting worse. My wife saw a woman stoned to death when she was 7 years old...in a market...in broad daylight. She was 7. I can't even imagine the horror of witnessing such an act as an adult. It's bad over there, I get it. I don't want them to acquire nuclear weapons, though not because I am afraid they will have the capability to deliver one to the U.S. or even Israel...they're not so dumb as to be oblivious to the fact that we would have the means and votes to authorize total destruction of them if either of those things happened. I think they would save it to use on invading forces, and guess who just happens to be in the area?
I read DailyKos, a lot. I've read about inevitable attacks and the invasion of Iran, about concentration camps being built in the U.S., about the extensive wiretaps with no one to translate what they are recording. I see the news, the drumbeats of pundits and right-wing loonies (Joe Lieberman) calling Iran the greatest threat to peace in the Middle East (didn't we already do this in 2002-2003?!). I see the falling poll numbers for Bush and the Republic Party and heard the GOP head in Arkansas say we need another 9-11 to scare everyone again so Bush can do whatever the hell Rove/Cheney tell him to do and we'll accept it because it's in the interests of national security.
All this leads me to one conclusion: Bush will bomb and/or invade Iran after some threat, real or perceived, can be blamed on them. They are trying this now, telling us about "definitive" proof that arms are flowing from the Iranian government into Afghanistan and Iraq. They tried this a year or so ago with the freakishly odd presentation of evidence to reporters on a magic show style stage (who was that behind the curtains?). The media picks up the story, O'Reilly and Hannity point fingers and bare teeth at those of us who would like a bit more information before we start killing people in yet another Muslim country, and everyone falls silent when said "evidence" is proven to be as real as Colin Powell's cartoon drawings of mobile weapons labs.
So, we bomb, invade, whatever. My wife's phone calls to her relatives in Iran have been recorded, but not translated. I am anti-war, Democrat, married to an Iranian. Mix it all together and I feel like the goat chained to the ground in Jurassic Park with the right wing noise machine shaking the earth all around me. We have no chance. Maybe they'll let me post on DKos from the detention facility, but I'm not counting on it.