An Iranian blogger’s perspective on the war
: I traded email today with hoder (above) about Motallebi and also about weblogs. I said I wished for more connections between Persian weblogs and English-language blogs. Language is clearly an issue but blogs such as hoder’s, in English, are bridges. I said that as soon as I started reading and linking to German weblogs, I found that they started doing the same to me; conversations started; friendships formed. The German bloggers and I don’t always agree but I think we respect each other and enjoy each others’ virtual company. I hope for the same links to bloggers from Iran and soon Iraq and other Arab countries. It can only help.
Well, as I read deeper into hoder’s blog, I found an interview he did with Sayed Pouya Razavi, the creator of Blogshares and an Iranian (now in the UK). There was a link to Razavi’s own blog and there I found fascinating reaction to the end of the Iraq war. He is glad that Saddam is gone. Yet he opposed the war as immoral. But he blames the ineffectual peace movement for the war itself.
The world should rejoice at the fall of Saddam’s brutal regime….
I’ve always found the anti-war movement in the West niave and ignorant shielded by the comforts of a Western life and pretentiously dipping their toes into “Eastern Culture” as if it was some fad or fashion….
In the end, the anti-war movement contributed to this happening. Their inneffectiveness, their lack of focus and lack of solutions handed the war to the warmongers. It gave them exactly what they needed: a disorganised rabble that appealed only to its own kind…. [dominated by] the voices of suburbanite white kids whose arguments degenerated into name calling and wishy-washy anti-globalisation rants….
Yet, I think I’m beginning to realise that there is no anti-war movement. There never was. There are some smart folks who are opposed to this war but there is no movement.
He is unsure about the future, torn between two views: One accepts the Bush/Blair line that we do come in peace, that 9.11 changed everything, that there can and will be a future without dictators. The other view fears that this will become a world of Us v. Them:
Muslims already know their peaceful religion has been subverted in the public mind by a few rogues and the whole of Christendom is set against them. It always has been, the terrorists just confirmed ancient prejudices. For all its glorious progress European cultures haven’t shaken off the yoke of Islamaphobia as they haven’t for the most part shaken off the scourge of anti-semiticism. Faced with this reality and the bleak prospects ahead, what other choice is there but to resist by all available means?
He says the next chapter in this story — the next front in this war — will be in Iran or Syria or America.
It’s a fascinating essay. What I agree with and disagree with is not the point. What weblogs let us do is compare views of the world from across the world. Weblogs are a powerful tool. Iran’s government, unfortunately, realizes that. Then so must we.
