Hezbollah “heroes” hailed in Iran for their “great job”

[democratic]

http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticleNew.asp?xfile=data/middleeast/2006/July/middleeast_July418.xml§ion=middleeast

21 July 2006


TEHERAN - Top Iranian cleric Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani on Friday hailed Lebanon’s Hezbollah as “heroes”, but rejected mounting allegations that Iran and Syria were behind the Shiite movement’s conflict with Israel.

“The Hezbollah forces have done a great job and have resisted well. They and their leader, our dear brother Hassan Nasrallah, are heroes,” the influential cleric and former president said in his Friday prayer sermon in Tehran.

Iran has been accused of financing Hezbollah, although the Islamic regime insists it only gives “moral” support to its fellow hardline Shiites.

[ShortnFiery]

1. One man's "terrorist" is another man's "freedom fighter" on a NATIONAL

level. Oh boy! Nationalism and Religion (Hezbollah = Party of God).

IMO we need to keep our tentacles out of the ME and strongly encourage Israel to start "playing nice" and integrating Jewish and Muslim peoples into communities of both faith and understanding.

Never happen, but I dream the dream.

We must try to sow the seeds of Peace. :-) :hi:

[Rex]

2. "One mans terrorist is another mans freedom fighter" - Ronald W Reagan.

Eat that lurking pukers!

[daleo]

3. Yeah, Reagan used to hail murderers of nuns. n/t

[Rex]

4. One mans death squad is another mans oppressive right hand.

nt

[Igel]

5. But sometimes one man's death squad is an

oppressive man's right hand.

[ShortnFiery]

6. Oh man, I can only imagine the Freepers flaking out over this thread ...

They'll spin it to: "Those lefties are in league with Hezbollah."

No way! What we are is, in fact, realists who KNOW that the USA is not the center of the universe. Also that National Pride will exponentially increase Religious Fervor (Hezbollah radicals) into an MIGHTY FORCE.

No, I detest extremism in ANY form. However, we all must be honest with ourselves enough to realize that there are other points of view, probably deluded, but no less real and no less deadly for both the USA and Israel.

Don't know if you noticed dear Freeper Nation, but we're hardly winning the campaign for the hearts and minds in Iraq. :(

[Judi Lynn]

7. Isn't that the truth? He said Rios-Montt got a "bum rap."

A thumbnail sketch for visitors who may not have taken the time to learn about US Republican policy in this hemisphere:

GENERAL EFRAIN RIOS MONT
President of Guatemala
"A Christian has to walk around with his Bible and his machine gun," said born-again General Efrain Rios Mont, military ruler of Guatemala from March 1982 to August 1983. Rios Mont was one in a long series of dictators who ran Guatemala after the Dulles brothers and United Fruit, backed by the CIA, decided that elected President Jacob Arbenz held the country "in the grip of a Russian-controlled dictatorship" and overthrew the country's constitutional democracy in 1954. The succession of corrupt military dictators ruled Guatemala for over 30 years, one anti-communist tyrant after another receiving U.S. support, aid, and training.
After the 1982 coup that brought Rios Mont to power, U.S. Ambassador Frederic C. Chapin said Guatemala "has come out of the darkness and into the light." President Reagan claimed Mont was given "a bum rap" by human rights groups, and that he was cleaning up problems inherited from his predecessor, General Romeo Lucas Garcia. Ironically, Garcia had given $500,000 to Reagan's 1980 campaign, and his henchman, Mario Sandoval Alarcon, the "Godfather" of Central American death squads, was a guest at Reagan's first inaugural celebration. Sandoval proudly calls his National Liberation Movement "the party of organized violence."
Mont simply moved Garcia's dirty war from urban centers to the countryside "where the spirit of the Lord" guided him against "communist subversives", mostly indigenous Indians. As many as 10,000 Indians were killed and over 100,000 fled to Mexico as a result of Mont's "Christian" campaign.
(snip/)

http://home.iprimus.com.au/korob/fdtcards/CentralAmerica.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

May 26, 1999
Reagan & Guatemala’s Death Files

After his election, Reagan pushed aggressively to overturn an arms embargo imposed on Guatemala by President Carter because of the military's wretched human rights record.

Reagan saw bolstering the Guatemalan army as part of a regional response to growing leftist insurgencies. Reagan pitched the conflicts as Moscow's machinations for surrounding and conquering the United States.

The president's chief concern about the recurring reports of human rights atrocities was to attack and discredit the information. Sometimes personally and sometimes through surrogates, Reagan denigrated the human rights investigators and journalists who disclosed the slaughters.

Typical of these attacks was an analysis prepared by Reagan's appointees at the U.S. embassy in Guatemala. The paper was among those recently released by the Clinton administration to assist the Guatemalan truth commission’s investigation.
(snip)

Reagan personally picked up this theme of a falsely accused Guatemalan military. During a swing through Latin America, Reagan discounted the mounting reports of hundreds of Maya villages being eradicated.

On Dec. 4, 1982, after meeting with Guatemala's dictator, Gen. Efrain Rios Montt, Reagan hailed the general as "totally dedicated to democracy." Reagan declared that Rios Montt's government had been "getting a bum rap."
(snip/...)

http://www.consortiumnews.com/1999/052699a2.html