A few more good sources

Here a few more sources to check out.

Kinzer, Stephen (2008). All the Shah's Men: An American Coup and the Roots of Middle East Terror. John Wiley & Sons

Stephen Kinzer is an award-winning foreign correspondent who has worked in more than 50 countries. He has been the New York Times bureau chief in Istanbul, Berlin, and Managua. He has authored a number of books on U.S. foreign policy. In this work, Kinzer has gone to great length to research and uncover the hidden U.S. role in the overthrow of Iranian Prime Minister Mossadegh in 1953, with the effect of crushing the first attempt at democracy in the country. This book gives the reader a crucial understanding of the rise of anti-Americanism in Iran that we are still dealing with today.

Sadjadpour, Karim. Iran: Is Productive Engagement Possible? Issue brief. Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 2008.

Karim Sadjadpour is an associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. He also served four years at the International Crisis Group based in Tehran and Washington D.C. He is also a regular contributor to BBC and PBS and has written for many publications including the Economist and the New York TImes. Sadjadpour lays out a step-by-step detailed plan for the U.S. government to implement if peace is to be achieved. This briefing is essential to understand the goals that must be achieved for a stable relationship with Iran.

Additionally, here are two congressional sub-committee hearings on Iran and U.S. policy towards it.

East, United States. Congress. House. Committee on Foreign Affairs. Subcommittee on the Middle and Asia, South (2008). Iran Sanctions and Regional Security: Hearing Before the Subcommittee on the Middle East and South Asia of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, House of Representatives, One Hundred Tenth Congress, First Session, October 23, 2007.

East, United States. Congress. House. Committee on Foreign Affairs. Subcommittee on the Middle and Asia, South (2008). More Than Just Enrichment: Iran's Strategic Aspirations and the Future of the Middle East: Hearing Before the Subcommittee on the Middle East and South Asia of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, House of Representatives, One Hundred Tenth Congress, Second Session, June 5, 2008.

Two good sources

For those of you who might be interested in doing some additional reading on Iran, here are two annotated bibliographies I created on these books I have.

Baer, Robert. The Devil We Know : Dealing with the New Iranian Superpower. 1st ed. New York: Crown, 2008.

Robert Baer is a former CIA field officer with over 20 years of experience in assignments across Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. He speaks Arabic fluently and has authored a number of books on his experiences in the CIA. Baer begins this book with the Islamic Revolution and carries it on through the invasion of Iraq up to present time. Baer does not suscribe to any particular political viewpoint and is objective in his experiences in the Middle East. Baer has excellent insight into the role the CIA and American foreign policy has played in Iran's tumultuous history including the current crisis. At the end of his book, Baer offers steps to a peaceful solution with Iran that should be viewed by anyone who is looking for peace and stability in the Middle East.

Ansari, Ali. Iran under Ahmadinejad : The Politics of Confrontation. New York: Routledge, 2008.

Ali M. Ansari is Professor of Iranian History and Director of the Institute for Iranian Studies at the University of St. Andrews, and Associate Fellow of the Middle East Programme, Royal Institute for International Afffairs (Chatham House). He has authored of number of other books on Iran, Middle East strategy, and foreign policy. He is one of the world's leading experts on Iran. Ansair gives an in depth analysis of Iran's history covering all the inner workings of the country up to present times. He gives his readers an excellent understanding of the political dynamics that allowed Ahmadinejad to rise to power. He discusses Iranian foreign policy and strategy in great detail and illuminates the role Iran plays in the Middle East. Ansari also discusses possible future trajectories for the Iranian state. Ansari's work is a solid piece on Iran and would be highly valuable for anyone seeking to learn more about Iran's historical and contemporary situation.

Changes in the making?

Well, election time in Iran has rolled around again and former President Khatami has recently announced he will be running again. Khatami is known as reformer and is much more liberal and Western friendly (he did call for a "Dialogue of Civilizations"), of course it's hard to reform with supreme authority wielded by Grand Ayatollah Khamenei. Not only that, but Khatami faces a huge campaign battle with President Ahmadinejad and his conservative base. In fact, there has already been at least one attempt to attack Khatami. I still think that Khatami has a good chance of winning but he is definitely going to have to work for it. Another issue that plays into this election is the new attempts at "dialogue" President Obama has called for. There are plenty of strategic reasons why even Ahmadinejad wants to have better relations with America. But, will Obama's timing on any negotiations be a factor in the Iranian election? If Obama begins talks with Ahmadinejad still president, the conservatives in Iran would be bolstered and would claim victory thanks to their leadership and hardline stance. If Obama waits until after the election when Khatami might be president then it would be the "reformers" that would be able to take credit. There are plenty of people in Iran who are more than ready to improve relations with America, especially on crucial issues such as Afghanistan and Iraq. Politically, Iran is alone in the region and surrounded by states with whom it may have some strategic alliances but nothing else. Iran would do well to increase its standing in the West to improve its situation, the only question is are they ready to make some concessions (like on a nuclear weapon) and is America ready to address some of Iran's legitimate concerns (such as defense issues). So, as the situation develops I would like to write more in the election in Iran, America's actions, and regional issues relating to them.

Social Bookmarking Soulmate

Ok, so this post stems from the recently past Valentine's Day and just like my previous posts has something to do with blogging, bookmarking, and my interests. So you may be wondering exactly what a social bookmarking soulmate is. Well, I'll tell you. You begin by going to your favorite social bookmarking site be it Diigo or Delicious and then search through other peoples tags for compatibility. You can look at a person's recent tags and find out what sort of stuff they are into and whether they match up with your interests or not. Once you find someone who you think is your soulmate you stalk them until you find out where they live and then... oh wait that's a whole different subject. But seriously, once you find your match you can save yourself a whole of time scouring the internet for new articles or websites on your favorite subjects because now you know someone else who can do it for you and all you had to do was sacrifice a little bit of time to search for them. Here's a video about social bookmarking soulmates.

But sadly, love is a fickle mistress and just like some lonely soul will tell you; there is no guarantee that you will find your social bookmarking soulmate. Take me for example, I didn't think it would be so hard to find someone with tags covering Iran, International Relations, Current Events, Anti-war, Peace, Globalization, and Travel, but apparently it is. Of course, it is also a reflection of how much time you put into the search. Now, after about 2 hours searching, I ended up with up with someone who is a moderately decent match but I had to make some sacrifices and lower my expectations. I found a certain Michael Fisher who's top tags included Middle East, Blog, Communications, North Africa, Foreign Policy, International Relations, Education, and Iran. All in all, I was quite pleased with my results and after exploring some of his recent bookmarks found quite a few items of interest that I will share with you. The first is a blog from an Iranian living in L.A. that deals with all sorts of current issues facing Iran called View From (Outside) Iran, it is definitely worth checking out. Another discovery, was an interesting little map tool that will help you learn all of the countries in the Middle East and North Africa if you don't already know them or if you just want to test your memory and knowledge. Click here to try it out. In addition to those discoveries Michael had a number of other interesting and relevant bookmarks to articles and sites.

I tell you, this is a great way to explore your own interests and add more resources to your disposal. You don't have to find just one soulmate, be a promiscuous social bookmarking whore and find out just how many people you can find who share your own interests. Don't be afraid to use different social bookmarking sites either. I only used Diigo (I'm lazy) but there are plenty of others to choose from that are equally, if not better, suited for activities like this. Don't forget to have fun while you're at it.

Blogorama

3. Recently, the issue of a writer’s voice was brought to my attention so I decided to read other blogs in an attempt to discern a writer’s voice through his/her text. Here is my voice critique of a blog titled, "Life must go on in Gaza and Sderot". This blog is written by two friends, Peaceman and Hopeman. Peaceman lives in a refugee camp in Gaza and Hopeman lives in Sderot, a small Israeli town across the border with Gaza. I decided to take a closer look at a post from each writer although Hopeman is more recent as the conflict has kept Peaceman from access to stable communication and therefore does not have as many recent posts. The first post I will talk about is titled "2 weeks and still going".

The first thing that stood out to me as I read the post was the sense of urgency and desperation conveyed by Hopeman. Although the post itself is describing the awful situation on the ground and the events occurring related to the conflict, it is Hopeman's use of short sentences which seemed to convey to me not only a sense of desperation but of panic. They are short staccato sentences almost like someone is out of breath from running miles and cannot get the words out fluidly. It also reminds me of a machine gun firing round after round, rounds which much like these sentences, travel fast and have a critical impact. Here is an excerpt from the post,

"On the Israeli side 1 million people are in the range of the rockets from Gaza. Many people have fled to safer areas in Israel. Most rockets are hitting in open areas, however some have injured civilians and lot's of damage has been caused to homes and buildings. People are in constant fear and alert. The war has created chaos in most of the southern part of Israel. No school or university studies, people are not allowed to crowd which means no weddings and other gatherings are not allowed, many businesses are closed and people have not been to work for 2 weeks".

The text is informative, relaying critical information to its readers with great clarity and little flare. Yet again, I am drawn to relate it to something else such as an urgent military radio transmission wherein there is only time for the most vital of information and all else is withheld. I am inclined to think that Hopeman's voice in this blog is a reflection of the the intense feelings he must have been going through when writing this. The words he uses are simple but describe the situation with great clarity and every sentence seems to carry the weight of truth. Hopeman's voice does seem to calm down a little further in the post as he begins to describe his family's situation. He then picks it back up again with these sentences,

"It feels rather normal however as I type, I can clearly hear the sounds of war. Blasts and planes, shooting and helicopters. A horrible war so close across the border. I am horrified by the number of civilian casualties in Gaza. The civilians are to suffer once again from the brutality and incompetence of their leaders and this time the result is worse than ever".

Here we have more of the short urgent sentences but now we can begin to see the resignation of Hopeman in this matter. For me these sentences convey strong feelings of sadness and regret. Further on in the post, Hopeman uses a rhetorical question to highlight the absurdity of the idea that there was no other option but war.

"This war has broken out for the simple reason that neither side was willing to make a serious effort to avoid it. Both sides were sharpening their swords waiting for the next horrible round. Was there no other option? Of course there was!".

All throughout the post Hopeman is strongly using pathos to reach the readers and this rhetorical question is another direct appeal to the reader's emotions. There is not, in my opinion, any other way to write about war (especially when your own country is involved) that can convey the intensity of the situation to others and that can jolt people into thinking like humans again and pierce the us/them mentality.

The post by Peaceman I looked at is titled, "war in Gaza". I found this post to be even more urgent and distressing than Hopeman's mentioned post. The post contains relatively short sentences bringing a lot of information to the readers. The text has minor errors throughout such as this one,

"But when the ground operation started, most people die is civilians and children".

Of course, I only mention such trifling errors (ESPECIALLY from a blogger in Gaza, with only limited time to send a message, whose first language probably isn't English) because they do add a dimension to the writer's voice that allows his character to be seen more clearly. The errors definitely allude to a rushed and urgent voice who I believe was probably more interested in sharing his true experiences and feelings in those fleeting moments then trying to influence unknown perceptions of the life and death conflict the Gazans are locked into. Peaceman's post was short but powerful in that it conveyed the sense of powerlessness and helplessness the Gazans are experiencing right now. Take this post for example,

"It is hard to describe what is going on in Gaza, a terrible disaster, where the aircraft do not distinguish between civilians and military and children, no water ,electricity and difficult to get your needs".

Both writers had very strong emotional voices that still had an air of coherence and logic surrounding them. They were not just wildly raving about their fear or uncertainty or the horrible loss of human life although all those things were mentioned. Neither were they expressing any political or ideological views views except when calling for an end to the violence and a permanent lasting cease-fire. I found their voices to be of the best kind, sincere and honest.

2. For my first go at blogging I went online and searched for any blogs that were related to the issues I wanted to blog about. I found one called “Andisheh: some thoughts on Iran”. Andisheh means, “thought” in Farsi. The blog’s subjects are politics, arts, and architecture. The writer is Cyrus Shahidi, an Iranian art student living in Geneve, Switzerland. According to Mr. Shahidi he is “pro-freedom and a supporter of a united, secular, strong and independent Iran”. It seems that Mr. Shahidi feels the same way about Iran that many Americans do about the U.S. and his basic but strong opinion is one reason why I chose to profile his blog rather than a number of others that contained a great deal of rhetoric from one political viewpoint or another. Mr. Shahidi also has many recent and frequent posts. His posts are very interesting and he gleans his information from a number of sources on the Internet and in the media. In addition, when he quotes somebody he posts links to the source article or website.

A recent post to the blog and a very interesting one at that contained parts of an interview Mr. Shahidi read from Rooz Online. The interview was with former CIA field officer, Robert Bayer. Some trivia on the side, Bayer was the main inspiration for George Clooney’s character in the movie Syriana whose opening scene took place in Iran. In the interview Bayer had some very interesting things to say about Iran’s position in the Middle East, Iran’s relationship with Israel and the U.S., and the Iran-Contra affair. (Read Mr. Shahidi’s post and the interview for yourself here).

Another fascinating post from Mr. Shahidi contains his take on the recent proclamations issued by two very important religious figures in Iran concerning the supreme authority held by the top Islamic cleric over all other positions including the president and parliament. Overall, it was a very interesting event for Iran and possibly a sign of hope for change in the future. Thank you Mr. Shahidi for bringing it to my attention. (Read the post here).

I feel that Mr. Shahidi's blog relates well to my blog in that it is informative and realistic and stays away from the bias and propaganda that has been running rampant for so many years now. Many of Mr. Shahidi’s posts are related to Iran and that is also similar to how my blog will run. I also get the feeling that Mr. Shahidi cares a lot about the possibility of war between Iran and America and would like to find away to avoid it, which is similar to my goals. Mr. Shahidi’s blog is not what I would call academic in the sense of strict writing and struture but it is definitely academic and scholarly in that he is actively searching for, analyzing, and critiquing current events in a competent manner. The posts are rich in detail and contain the required references when needed but they are not boring or too wordy. Mr. Shahidi lays out the situation and his opinion quite eloquently. I am not entirely certain who Mr. Shahidi’s audience is but I assume, going by some comments that I read and the country flag counter, that it is a mix of people from every continent with quite a few Iranians and people living in America. Depending on the number of American and Iranian readers, I imagine that the audience’s relevance to the field is around the same level as Mr. Shahidi’s and my own; people who have a personal stake in the situation and people who wish to stay informed and current with their information.

There is much to choose from when writing about the current situation with Iran and a number of ways to do it. So although I will probably continue to read Mr. Shahidi’s blog I will not use it as any sort of reference or generator for ideas on what to blog about. My blog will contain posts on what I feel are the most interesting or relevant topics to blog about. I would also like to focus a little more on clearing the haze of misconceptions currently spouted in America about Iran, its people, and society. Although I feel that this is a worthy goal, I also feel disturbed and ashamed by the fact that there is still so much ignorance in America concerning foreign countries, especially Middle Eastern countries. Therefore, I plan to refute any and all false information that comes to my attention concerning Iran and portray the most accurate picture I can of Iran and its people. This does not mean I will be singing Iran’s praises and denouncing America, for I will also talk about the Iranian’s misconceptions of Americans. I will give credit and criticism where it is due to both countries (and to any other countries involved in the situation). I also would like to blog about current events taking place in Iran (not just political ones) in order to share more information with readers about the everyday lives of the Iranian people.

1. Hello everybody!!! Prince of Persia here and I have decided to blog about the current situation between America and Iran and many issues relating to it. This topic is very near and dear to me since I am an American, married to an Iranian, and have family in Iran. I am semi-fluent in Farsi and I have traveled to Iran as recently as 2007. I have a deep love for both countries and I truly desire peace for both countries and I am certain that military action would not bring prosperity or security to either country. Therefore, I would like to explore the current situation between the two countries and form analyses of America’s foreign policy and actions concerning Iran as well as the Iranian regimes reactions. I would like to explore as much as possible about the two countries current relationship in order to broaden my knowledge of the situation and to better understand what can be done to bring about a peaceful resolution to the crisis as well as hopefully add to other’s understanding of the matter.

My posts will likely alternate between economical and political as wells as social and religious because Iran is an Islamic country and I would like to explore the role that religion has played in the situation. I will also possibly include a bit of history in my posts about the two countries past relationship in order to give newcomers to the situation a clearer understanding of the current crisis. Many Americans are not aware that Iran was America’s closest ally in the Middle East for many years. In fact, to have a decent understanding of the current situation you have to go back to the summer of 1953 when Prime Minister Mossadeq was overthrown by a coup d’état supported by the British and Americans. All of that particular history will most likely be referred to in various posts in the future. But, mostly I would like to post about the current events taking place in the Middle East and in America determine whether or not they are helpful or harmful to a peaceful resolution of the situation.

A new way to connect

I was browsing through a site called Twine and decided to make a post about it and its uses for others and myself. Basically, Twine is a shared blog with extras. You start off by creating a Twine and then decide whether you want to make it private or public. Next, you can start adding content in any form, images, video, bookmarks and comments. Here's where the sharing comes in, if you decided to keep it private but want some friends to add material you can invite them to join your twine and contribute. If your twine is public anyone can add new material to it. This is a very cool concept because it allows for collaboration on topics that otherwise would be a lot more difficult and it can really expand your twine a lot faster. You sort of decide what type of topic seed to plant and then you can sit back and watch it grow as others contribute to it.

Once you become a part of the Twine community and use it for a little while the website will begin to pickup on your interests and then start suggesting twines or posted items that you might be interested in. The website will also try to connect you with other "twiners" that match your interests thereby increasing the sense of community. Now, I must mention that Twine was opened to the public just last year in October 2008, so although there is already a significant number of users and a decent amount of content on Twine, it doesn't seem to be extremely popular yet so don't be expecting something like Facebook. But, just give it some time and I think that as time goes on and it gets more exposure Twine will grow to considerable status.

Some additional features of the site are pretty cool as well such as the user interface. The interface is very well done and pleasant to look at as well as convenient to use. There are also a number of ways to keep you updated such as the Twine interest feed, an email digest, or an RSS feed.

Now I would like to discuss a little bit more in detail some of the content I found on Twine that relates to the issues I would like my blog to encompass and might be of interest to my readers. First of all, since I am interested in international relations I found a World News twine. The creator of this twine asked people to post news from around the world and so far has received news from a number of different countries. I was also curious if there were already twines on Iran and there were a number of them from various individuals like this one www.twine.com/twine/118klqc8s-5rg/iran. The potential for something like this is amazing once the numbers of users grow. For instance, I imagine myself hearing about a political event (like an election) in Israel or Iran and then starting a new twine and asking others from those countries to contribute their feelings or opinions on the event. To be able to instantly (or at least relatively quickly) assess an event in a foreign country from multiple perspectives is something I find quite interesting.

Well that's it for my Twine spiel, if it sounds interesting, please don't hesitate to check it out for youself and join the community.

Voice Critique

Here is my voice critique of a blog titled, "Life must go on in Gaza and Sderot". This blog is written by two friends, Peaceman and Hopeman. Peaceman lives in a refugee camp in Gaza and Hopeman lives in Sderot, a small Israeli town across the border with Gaza. I decided to take a closer look at a post from each writer although Hopeman is more recent as the conflict has kept Peaceman from access to stable communication and therefore does not have as many recent posts. The first post I will talk about is titled "2 weeks and still going". 

The first thing that stood out to me as I read the post was the sense of urgency and desperation conveyed by Hopeman. Although the post itself is describing the awful situation on the ground and the events occurring related to the conflict, it is Hopeman's use of short sentences which seemed to convey to me not only a sense of desperation but of panic. They are short staccato sentences almost like someone is out of breath from running miles and cannot get the words out fluidly. It also reminds me of a machine gun firing round after round, rounds which much like these sentences, travel fast and have a critical impact. Here is an excerpt from the post, 

"On the Israeli side 1 million people are in the range of the rockets from Gaza. Many people have fled to safer areas in Israel. Most rockets are hitting in open areas, however some have injured civilians and lot's of damage has been caused to homes and buildings. People are in constant fear and alert. The war has created chaos in most of the southern part of Israel. No school or university studies, people are not allowed to crowd which means no weddings and other gatherings are not allowed, many businesses are closed and people have not been to work for 2 weeks".

The text is informative, relaying critical information to its readers with great clarity and little flare. Yet again, I am drawn to relate it to something else such as an urgent military radio transmission wherein there is only time for the most vital of information and all else is withheld. I am inclined to think that Hopeman's voice in this blog is a reflection of the the intense feelings he must have been going through when writing this. The words he uses are simple but describe the situation with great clarity and every sentence seems to carry the weight of truth. Hopeman's voice does seem to calm down a little further in the post as he begins to describe his family's situation. He then picks it back up again with these sentences, 

"It feels rather normal however as I type, I can clearly hear the sounds of war. Blasts and planes, shooting and helicopters. A horrible war so close across the border. I am horrified by the number of civilian casualties in Gaza. The civilians are to suffer once again from the brutality and incompetence of their leaders and this time the result is worse than ever".

Here we have more of the short urgent sentences but now we can begin to see the resignation of Hopeman in this matter. For me these sentences convey strong feelings of sadness and regret. Further on in the post, Hopeman uses a rhetorical question to highlight the absurdity of the idea that there was no other option but war.

"This war has broken out for the simple reason that neither side was willing to make a serious effort to avoid it. Both sides were sharpening their swords waiting for the next horrible round.Was there no other option? Of course there was!".

All throughout the post Hopeman is strongly using pathos to reach the readers and this rhetorical question is another direct appeal to the reader's emotions. There is not, in my opinion, any other way to write about war (especially when your own country is involved) that can convey the intensity of the situation to others and that can jolt people into thinking like humans again and pierce the us/them mentality. 

The post by Peaceman I looked at is titled, "war in Gaza". I found this post to be even more urgent and distressing than Hopeman's mentioned post. The post contains relatively short sentences bringing a lot of information to the readers. The text has minor errors throughout such as this one,

"But when the ground operation started, most people die is civilians and children".

Of course, I only mention such trifling errors (ESPECIALLY from a blogger in Gaza, with only limited time to send a message, whose first language probably isn't English) because they do add a dimension to the writer's voice that allows his character to be seen more clearly. The errors definitely allude to a rushed and urgent voice who I believe was probably more interested in sharing his true experiences and feelings in those fleeting moments then trying to influence unknown perceptions of the life and death conflict the Gazans are locked into. Peaceman's post was short but powerful in that it conveyed the sense of powerlessness and helplessness the Gazan's are experiencing right now. Take this post for example,

"It is hard to describe what is going on in Gaza, a terrible disaster, where the aircraft do not distinguish between civilians and military and children, no water ,electricity and difficult to get your needs".

Both writers had very strong emotional voices that still had an air of coherence and logic surrounding them. They were not just wildly raving about their fear or uncertainty or the horrible loss of human life although all those things were mentioned. Neither were they expressing any political or ideological views views except when calling for an end to the violence and a permanant lasting cease-fire. I found their voices to be of the best kind, sincere and honest.