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Iranian Protests

Discussion in 'Political Debate & Discussion' started by poncho, Jun 19, 2009.

  1. poncho

    poncho Well-Known Member

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    Has anyone besides me wondered why Iranian protesters are carrying signs written in English and speak perfect English during interviews? Probably not huh?
     
  2. targus

    targus New Member

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    It was the same back during the Carter years when the Iranians took our embassy people hostage.

    It's basically because they are playing to the U.S. audience. They know that the demonstrations will be broadcast in the U.S.
     
  3. Crabtownboy

    Crabtownboy Well-Known Member
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    I have noticed it, but not wondered about it. English is the world language at the moment. Almost all college students around the world either speak or want to speak English. Also, signs in English is the best way of getting the message across around the world.
     
  4. poncho

    poncho Well-Known Member

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    How is that of any benefit to them though?

    They also chant "death to the dictator, death to Ahmadinejad" as if they don't understand he is a puppet of the Ayatollahs. So he's hardly a dictator. It's hard to believe that Iranians are that uninformed.
     
  5. targus

    targus New Member

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    Just speculation on my part...

    The advantage to the U.S. noticing their protests is the hope that the U.S. would intervene and free them from the tyranny of their current goverment.

    They may be looking at Iraq and thinking that in the end the freedoms and democracy may be worth the short term pain.

    They may be chanting "death to Ahmadinejad" because they know that they would be signing their own death warrant if they were to chant "death to the Ayatollahs".
     
  6. poncho

    poncho Well-Known Member

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    Can't be the Iranians remember much about their own recent history then. Last time we interevened over there we set up a dictatorship that treated them much worse than Mosaddeq (Time magazine's man of the year 1951) ever did. Which of course led to the Iranian revolution, the hostage crisis, the ousting of our puppet the Shah and the spread of Islamic militancy.

    Apparently the Iranian people have forgotten that real American style democracy is only achieved when the "international community" is allowed to move in and rule over them through friendly puppet regimes.

    Like I said it's hard to believe the Iranian people are that uninformed.
     
    #6 poncho, Jun 20, 2009
    Last edited by a moderator: Jun 20, 2009
  7. targus

    targus New Member

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    I don't know why that should be hard to believe considering that something like 70% of the population is under the age of thirty...

    And something like 30% of the population is illiterate.
     
  8. poncho

    poncho Well-Known Member

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    Compared to the knowledge Americans have about recent Iranian history they're probably way ahead of us. For that matter Iranians probably know more about our recent history than we do.

    Wonder what percentage of our own population is civically illiterate?

    Did some very quick checking...

    Only 54% of college graduates can identify a free enterprise system correctly.

    When questioned about U.S. economics and history (on a high school level, 12th grade) the average score was 49%.

    Only 27% understand the constitution forbids establishing a state religion.

    Less than 50% can name the three branches of government.

    You'd expect public servants or "government officials" as they prefer to be called these days would do much better when questioned about U.S. economics and history, right?

    54% didn't know that congress has the power to declare war and not POTUS.

    When tested on other subjects such as the 1st amendment and international trade they proved themselves even less knowledgable than the average U.S. citizen!

    I'm sure there are more numbers to be found on this but I only have enough time to do a very quick check. I got these numbers from this article.

    Doesn't look like we have that much of an advantage over Iranians in the knowledge department. Having ignorant leaders doesn't give us much hope for the future either.

    General Michael Hayden didn't even know the words "probable cause" were in the 4th amendment when he was head of the NSA! But then maybe he was just playing dumb to cover his own uh, well you know he wasn't about to admit to a possible criminal offense by spying on American citizens without search warrants.

    Here's some more numbers to ponder.

    42 million American adults can't read at all; 50 million are unable to read at a higher level that is expected of a fourth or fifth grader.

    The number of adults that are classified as functionally illiterate increases by about 2.25 million each year.

    20 percent of high school seniors can be classified as being functionally illiterate at the time they graduate.

    70 percent of prisoners in state and federal systems can be classified as illiterate.

    85 percent of all juvenile offenders rate as functionally or marginally illiterate

    43 percent of those whose literacy skills are lowest live in poverty.

    SOURCE

    So if you are trying to say we Americans are smarter or more knowledgable than Iranians one could argue that there is considerable room for doubt targus.

    One could even argue that we are swiftly becoming a nation of idiots being led by the idiots we elect. But I won't make that arguement. :smilewinkgrin:
     
    #8 poncho, Jun 22, 2009
    Last edited by a moderator: Jun 22, 2009
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