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Originally Posted by scaeagles
MBC, while I typically find your posts to be grounded in reality, this is simply so far out there that I just don't get it. Either that or your definition of extremist is much broader than mine.
Palestinians dancing in the streets on 9/11. Practically the entire populations of Syria and Iran. A large portion of the Islamic world has always hated the west, and the US in particular.
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The entire population of Iran? Hardly.
This is from an American journalist who was living in Iraq around 2000-2001...
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The last time I heard anyone in Tehran publicly say anything positive about the United States was in 2001. During the noontime rush at the bank on Vali Asr Street, a middle-age woman grew furious at the teller who refused to cash her check and yelled out in frustration, “If the Americans come, I’ll kiss their boots myself!” Everyone looked up momentarily and then went about their business.
Back in those days — 2000 and 2001, when I first lived in Iran as a journalist — Iranians were looking on jealously as U.S. soldiers removed the Taliban from power in neighboring Afghanistan; it was a moment when the United States competed with soccer for popularity. You could not buy a newspaper or ride a taxi without hearing the plaintive question: “When will Americans come to rescue us?”
Iranians romanticized the United States as a benevolent power at that time, and they were besotted with tokens of American popular culture. Young couples who could not speak English celebrated Valentine’s Day; U.S.-style fast-food places served hamburgers and shakes to endless lines; Barbie (smuggled in from Dubai despite the U.S. embargo) became the most coveted birthday gift of Iranian girls, and authentic Coke was the preferred beverage of Iranians under 30.
Bear in mind that in 2002, young Arabs in cities such as Cairo, Egypt, were burning down Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurants and boycotting U.S. products in anger at American support for Israel, yet a poll conducted in 2001 found that 74 percent of Iranians supported restoring ties with the United States.
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And
another...
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It is this reporter's opinion that in the midst of a growing controversy over Iran, it's time to take a closer and perhaps more objective look. Last January Vice President Dick Cheney said Iran was right at the top of the list of potential trouble spots. Yet despite the current turmoil and decades of anti-American propaganda from the Iranian government, many Iranians express admiration for the United States.
The paradox of Iran is that it just might be the most pro-American – perhaps the least anti-American – populace in the Muslim world. (Those under 30 are too young to remember the anti-American sentiment of the '50s and '60s and share little of their parents' ideology.)
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I will agree that our perceptions of reality differ greatly.