The scene playing out for us on the news is as if from a horror movie. The crimes that the members of the basij have committed against the Iranian protesters would be unspeakable if they were not plastered all over the media, thanks to social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter. As I go through the motions of my daily life, I hear worried voices asking around me, "Have you seen the news? Have you heard about what's going on in Iran?" The shock and horror of what is being done to Iranian citizens who support Moussavi and are protesting the certainly rigged election to keep President Ahmadinejad in power is like a slap in the face to the American people. What? Democracy and freedom don't dominate the world? What? The election was just a pretense to keep the Iranian people in line while sinister rulers work out their evil plans and cut down everyone in their paths? How can this be?
The truth is, I don't understand why the people around me are shocked at reports of the basij going after protestors with axes and hatchets, or intentionally shooting a woman who was not part of the protests. These are the kinds of actions that happen commonly under the Iranian regime. And why would you expect anything less of a regime that has gone to great lengths to make one half of its entire population invisible and sub-human? Every day, armed morality police patrol the streets, arresting anyone they will for any reason they can fathom: women eating apples too provocatively, standing too close to the opposite sex, posessing eyelashes that are too dark and alluring (all examples from the memoir Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi). Where crimes against morality are punishable by death...which in the more turbulent crackdowns are usually carried out in public executions broadcast on television. But what do you expect when the all-powerful Ayatollah can suggest bestiality to men as a way to curb their sexual appetites, but will lash or kill women for inspiring lust within men? What do you expect when the government propoganda posted in the airports reads, "Death to America! Death to Zionism!" The truth is that these crimes against humanity have been committed every day, the U.S. population simply did not care: it wasn't as interesting as the latest spat between Brangelina. In fact, the only reason we know about the faked election and the protests at all is because of the rise of Facebook and Twitter. Perhaps if these sites had existed in 1979, Iran would be a very different place today.
My thoughts on Iran are complicated: my heart is with the people obviously. Finally, they are united against the fear and torture that they have been forced to live under, and maybe, just maybe, they can pull together and take their freedom back. Would I be for sending U.S. intervention? Well, that's where my feelings get complicated. Who are we to police the world? The financial cost of another war could very possibly collapse our teetering economy. We obviously have our own problems to deal with here at home. How can you ask a mother here to possibly send, and lose, her child to a conflict which really has nothing to do with us? After all, it is doubtful that the U.S. is the target of Iran's nuclear weapons program...as much as they would like to destroy us. The true target is Israel. And judging by President Obama's stern words and soft action on the situation, I seriously doubt that we will get in another conflcit unprovoked. We are already over-extended as the global peace-keepers as it is, and the financial burden is bearing down on us, as it did on the Roman Empire, the Spanish Empire, and the British Empire, until we will most likely collapse into history. Still, I know in my heart that if my daughters were living under a brutal regime, I would be the first one to cry, "Where are the Americans?" Obviously, as a patriot to my country, I feel that freedom, a Divine Establishment given by God to ALL men, is worth fighting, and dying, for. But it gets more complicated: is the freedom of a nation not at all connected to you worth the sacrifice? Is what made us a great nation been our power-house private sector, enormous natural resources, and "don't tread on me" mentality? Or is it our compassion for others: our love of freedom that is so great we would send troops to die so that others could taste it, too? Don't just think of WWI and WWII and those crosses and stars on the shores of Normandy, but think of Kuwait, Kosovo, and Iraq, too. And how many of those countries are now considered to be U.S. territories? In fact, what has the U.S. ever asked of the countries it has helped to free, except enough land to burry our dead who could not be sent home? But at the same time, is it a moral responsibility for the U.S. to guaruntee freedom to other nations at the expense of the security of our own country?
I can do little to participate in the conversations going around me, because I simply do not know what to say. All I know to do is try to help people understand that the rest of the world is a very, very different place from the U.S. And while we seem to be in a pattern of gladly giving up our freedom for "security" these days, we still enjoy more freedoms here than any other country in the world. I really shouldn't get too uncomfortable, though: all I have to do is bide my time until the conversation inevitably shifts to the latest sports victory or public celebrity break-up.
No comments:
Post a Comment