Decline and Fall

Regarding the "little blue pill" story in the Washington Post, Yglesias comments:

One especially neat thing about this is that unlike guns or money, our Taliban rivals have essentially no prospect of producing large quantities of advanced pharmaceuticals. So if Afghan elders decide they like their ED meds, they’ll really have no choice but to try to stay on our good sides.

While there may or may not be any companies capable of producing "advanced pharmaceuticals" in Afghanistan, the rest of the region doesn't have that problem. Here's a company in Aleppo, Syria that produces knock-off versions of Viagra and Cialis. Here's a faux Viagra from Iran. I'm sure there are others, but you see where I'm going with this: "daddy's little helpers" are widely available throughout the world, including places where some of us imagine the religious authorities would never allow it.

Beyond that, in my experience folks in the Middle East are downright open about their affection for the blue diamonds. I can't tell you how many times I looked through a detainee's pocket litter and found a solitary blue pill, stashed like a nug at the bottom of his pocket or deep within the folds of his wallet. In Cairo, the drug stores often advertise Viagra and its upstanding bretheren right in front, the display occasionally being larger than the sign for the store itself, and more prominently placed.

Even the kids get into it. Don't ask me how or why this happened, but I was once asked by an Egyptian boy of no more than 14 years if I used Viagra, because he sure as hell did. (Incidentally, this kid actually began the conversation this way... creepy.) When I said, "no," he looked at me like I was a total dork. This says a lot about what it means to be "cool" in some places.

But I have no problem, in principle, with us providing a little extra humanitarian aid in an effort to a people brought low by poverty, despotism and war. Note that the pills are but one part of a broader strategy:

In their efforts to win over notoriously fickle warlords and chieftains, the officials say, the agency’s operatives have used a variety of personal services. These include pocketknives and tools, medicine or surgeries for ailing family members, toys and school equipment, tooth extractions, travel visas, and, occasionally, pharmaceutical enhancements for aging patriarchs with slumping libidos, the officials said.

Hearts and minds, indeed.

Labels: GWOT, Iran, Islam, Middle East, military, terrorism

Thoreau at Unqualified Offerings:

Some day, other countries' versions of neocons will say "It's just like
2007, and [insert leader here] is just like Bush. If we don't start a
pointless war RIGHT NOW, he'll take yet another country! We must act NOW
to prevent another world war!"

Labels: Bush, humor, Iran, Iraq

This is a good personal account of Iranian history over the last half-century. From the Mossadegh coup to the Islamic Revolution to the quiet opposition to the mullahs, this story, minus the relocation to America, gives the reader a good feel for the Iranian point of view. It's not anti-American exactly, but it's certainly not pro-American. They do, however, like our baubles:

A version of America, as filtered through Hollywood (and Iranian exiles in Southern California), was in every home. Through bootlegged music from LA, or the songs of Pink Floyd, Metallica, Guns N' Roses, and other Western rock icons of the time, Tehranis embraced what the government called "the infidel." They danced to his music and imitated the lifestyle they absorbed from satellite TV and pirated Hollywood films. Tapes of American movies sometimes made it to the Iranian capital before they were commercially released in the U.S. Even those who opposed the U.S. politically and could not forgive or forget its role in the 1953 coup and the Shah's prison state found joy in American pop culture. In private conversations, relatives, friends, even absolute strangers inquired about my life in the States or the possibility of somehow escaping to America.

It appeared that Iranians could not live without America. Even the government needed the Great Satan to repress its opponents, while Tehranis took refuge in American pop culture to escape the life created for them by that very government.

Note the irony in that second paragraph. As much as the Iranians had been conditioned to hate America, they still somehow found a way to embrace American culture, and that embrace could only happen thanks to the constant demonization of America by their own repressive government, who require a "Great Satan" to maintain their legitimacy. Iran has an obsession with America. Take this passage, from the author's stay in a Tehran prison in 1999:

"What are you doing here? You don't seem to belong," said another man. Without hesitation, I told my story. Intrigued and excited by the presence of a visitor from America, they seized the moment. In no time, I was flooded with questions about life, music, girls, about all that was officially forbidden in Iran.

"Have you been to Los Angeles?" a talkative young man inquired. "I would do anything to go there!" Others floated the names of Iranian singers living in Los Angeles -- the exiled singers of the Shah's time and new pop stars. "Have you ever seen Sandy in person?" a very young inmate asked about a singer I had never heard of. "How many times have you gone to Dariush's concerts?" he asked about the most popular singer among the young before the Islamic revolution. "How does he look in person? Give him my regards."

Another young inmate quietly inquired about Pink Floyd and Santana. "Have you ever gone to a Pink Floyd concert?" he asked in an awed whispered. I remembered my own youth, those long hours listening to Pink Floyd and Dariush, that same longing for a chance to see them in person. A generation later, in an Islamic republic, what had changed?

"How can I emigrate to America?" a man, who hadn't said a word, asked from across the room.

Suddenly, an older inmate began singing a popular song associated with Hayedeh, an icon from the Shah's time. She had died in exile in Los Angeles five years earlier. The cell fell into silence.

My night in prison ended and I was taken to court the next morning. As I left the cell, the inmates embraced me one by one, promising to remain in touch. "Say hello to Los Angeles," an inmate said jauntily. "Write about us in the newspapers. Tell people about our conditions. Don't forget us."

Don't take this passage to mean that America's next step should be to "liberate" the Iranian people from their repressive government. Iranians remember 1953 like it was yesterday. An attack on Ahmedinejad's regime would only confirm the propaganda the Ayatollahs have been spreading for generations: America is the enemy of the Iranian people.

How about, instead of sabre-rattling and making preparations for a war that we know we can't win, we invite Iran to the negotiating table? Is that so outlandish? To our Administration, it apparently is. Let's just hope Bush & Co. are gone before something drastic (like an invasion) happens.

Hat tip: Pardon My Paradox.

Labels: Iran

More reason to be worried about the sabre-rattling that has been going on with Iran: they're rattling theirs right back. The Iranian press has said that the IEDs that killed 11 people in southeastern Iran are linked to America. They've even posted pictures of the offending devices. That's right, just as our President is claiming that Iran is behind IED attacks in Iraq, someone in Iran is claiming that we're behind IED attacks in Iran.

I'm not worried that we're actually doing it. As The Left Coaster notes:

Even if the United States were behind the operation, it is unlikely the Iranians would find weapons and materials that would be identifiable as American. US organizations that are involved in covert operations are very good about not leaving signatures that can be traced.

At least I'd like to think our boys are that good.

This just gives Iran even more reason to ratchet up their anti-American propaganda in preparation for another war that we can not afford to get into. They can afford it, however, because they know that they would receive the support of all of those nations we've pissed off since the lies and slander (remember "freedom fries"?) we engaged in in the runup to the Iraq invasion. I suppose that turnabout is fair play, but this will cost lives. Many, many lives.

(OK, I just read the Wikipedia entry for Freedom Fries. "Liberty Measles"? WTF?)

Labels: GWOT, Iran, military