Foreign Affairs
Related: About this forumIran’s Aging (Civilian) Airliner Fleet Seen as Faltering Under U.S. Sanctions
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/14/world/middleeast/irans-airliners-falter-under-sanctions.html?smid=re-shareBut after 17 years of United States sanctions that have prevented the Islamic Republic from buying new Western planes and spare parts, he said he now felt ashamed before his passengers and angry over American policies, which he said, were responsible for Iranian plane crashes that have left more than 1,700 passengers and crew members dead.
The sanctions have prevented oil-rich Iran from updating its fleet, forcing it to use substandard Russian planes and to patch up its older jets far past their normal years of service, drawing on spare parts bought with increasing difficulty on the black market. Rarely a year goes by without major airline accidents, and most Iranian planes, including the 727, are forbidden to operate within the European Union.
EgaLitE
(31 posts)Given Iran's sordid actions over the last few years, including its president's denial of the Holocaust, I can't resist the urge to make a few cynical comments.
I'm having a hard time feeling sorry for a bunch of theocrats who are imposing a male-dominated, homophobic theocracy on their own people. Maybe if Iran was democratic and tolerant they wouldn't be dealing with sanctions. Iran has brought whatever misfortune on themselves through their own hatred of modernity, and democracy and through their constant threats to wipe Israel (the only democracy in the Middle East) off the Map.
To Iran's mind, it is a model organization. So that means that all it takes to solve our social woes are shotgun marriages, heavy-handed divorce laws, and a return to some 7th century b.s. "morality". I'll go over that again: Iran's eulogists are quick to point out that because Iran is hated, persecuted, and repeatedly laughed at, it is the real victim here. The truth is that, if anything, Iran is a victim of Iran and if they would just open up and stop legislating out of some arcane and totalitarian 7th century religious document then maybe, just maybe they could join the civilized world as decent human beings.
Iran loves generating drama and conflict. That's why it repeatedly insists that it would never dream of peddling fake fears to the public.
Iran's president is a notorious holocaust denier and a hate-filled bigot who has threatened Israel repeatedly with destruction. Of course, Ahmadinejad always demands instant gratification. That's all that is of concern to him. Nothing else mattersexcept maybe to transform our little community into a global crucible of terror and gore. I tell you this because Ahmadinejad has been trying to trick people into believing that his publications epitomize wholesome family entertainment. Apparently, he has succeeded beyond his wildest dreams with truculent, rabid pettifoggers; they're now fully convinced that Ahmadinejad is forward-looking, open-minded, and creative.
The world community is right to shun this hateful theocratic dictatorship and its totalitarian, bearded mullahs. Until Iran is a free, secular, and democratic society I won't be shedding any tears for them.
Response to EgaLitE (Reply #1)
Post removed
LeftishBrit
(41,208 posts)I'm against beating the war-drums with Iran, but let's not sentimentalize the country either: it is a right-wing dictatorship, and Ahmadinejad is a right-wing nutcase, perhaps just slightly less so than Khamenei.
How would you like to have Pat Robertson and James Dobson running America with absolute power? Iran is at least as bad as that.
And all this about 'only zionists' sounds like some sort of rather sick parody.