Tehran, Iran, Mar. 07 – A senior Revolutionary Guards commander dismissed on Tuesday threats by the United States over Iran’s nuclear program as “political bluff”, the government-owned news agency Fars reported.
Brigadier General Ali-Reza Afshar, a veteran Revolutionary Guards commander and director of propaganda and cultural affairs in the high command of the Armed Forces, made the remarks on the final day of a conference in Tehran entitled “the West’s Psychological War Against Iran”.
“The bulk of America’s threatening propaganda against the Islamic Republic of Iran is just political bluff”,
Afshar said.
He said that Iran was countering the “psychological war” being waged by the U.S. by highlighting America’s “domestic problems”, citing issues such as poverty, torture in prisons, unemployment, inequality, and instrumentalisation of women.
Afshar said that his government was exposing “America’s plots” in the Middle East. “When Muslims become aware of such plots, they forge a remarkable unity against America”.
Afshar cited the seizure of British gunboats by the Revolutionary Guards in June 2004 as an example of successful psychological war by Iran.
“If the Revolutionary Guards had not acted quickly in putting out news of the seizure of the boats, we would not have been able to create that psychological war against the British”, he said.
Scenes of blindfolded and handcuffed British marines being paraded by Revolutionary Guards shocked television viewers in London in the summer of 2004. Despite repeated requests by Britain, Iran has refused to return the boats and equipment.
Afshar listed four stages of psychological war as peace, threats, crisis and war. He said that with the coming to power of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, “enemy plans to sow discord within the government of the Islamic Republic” have been thwarted.
“Now the enemy is trying to use other tools against us, including ethnic and religious conflicts and partisan strife, but we must recognise these and be ready to confront them”, the Revolutionary Guards general said.
Wild Thing’s comment……
I’ll put it this way. If this was a poker game, I would want the hand that the USA held and NOT the hand that Ahmadinejad held. Don’t Mess with the USA!
It’s interesting to me that Captain Crunch wasn’t precise about which stage of his psy war we’re in now. He also didn’t have the permission of his bearded lovers, or the courage, to challenge the US to a military confrontation. “Political bluff”, indeed.
What I would like to see, but won’t, is a response from this administration which demands a clarification of the remark..such as, “We needs to know if General ButtF***er is threatening the United States”, or more direct, “General Buttfu**er has issued what appears to be a declaration of war against the United States, and we are reviewing our options”.
Intentional misrepresentation puts the offender in the spotlight. This administration too often concedes the debate to its enemies, here and abroad, by not responding in the right way. War includes humiliating your enemies. Iran deserves it more than most.
Rhod you said it!!!
You are right about this administration and it frustrates me how they won’t do that very thing. If words would be different, sentences would NOT have been said ever that were said. A total different stance not only in action but words as well. Can you imagine.To be consistant from day one with who is the axis of evil and stay strong on that.
Forinstance, is something wrong when we hold our breath to see if this administration will say NO to the Hamas for funding and support. We should have confidence in knowing that it will not happen instead.
Well said Rhod, and thank you.
Running late this AM, Rhod has said it all, except for the fact that war is the game of one round, not multiple innings as in baseball, the Dems think that we can reason with a madman. There is but one solution, take him out – unconditionally.
As a veteran and military historian it is with growing alarm that I witness the lack of a clear and coherent message from the administration warning Iran that comments made by any General can have severe consequences. Further, it serves to inform the UN and the EU that we will not be dictated to by a group of barbarians.
WT, Jack and Washington:
Absolutely! Any slack-jawed cretin lackey of the Iranian regime should be:
A) Publically challenged by the United States to clariy himself. If not, shut the ef up.
B) If threats continue, the offender should be publically marked for apprehension or death by the government and military of the United States.
C) Put on notice that any further brinkmanship will be marked by mobilization of the armed forces of the United States for war.
Washington clearly notes that vagueness of intent and miscalculation are always exploited by enemies, and are sometimes as valuable as bullets.
You people don’t have a clue. Cheney is an ass and so is Bush. We should have Kerry handling this, he is the only one that is a Vet. He is the only one that is Military.
We never should have gone into Iraq.And we are to blame for what happened on 9-11, the way we have treated Muslims in the past. How can we blame them for hating us.
You should pray that Kerry runs again this time we will win. He is a hero unlike Bush.
Sam
Interesting that you think Kerry is a Vet and Bush isn’t. Kerry does four months in Vietnam and that makes him a hero? If you want to say he got medals, so did Tim McVeigh who was awarded the Bronze Star. When you strap a jet engine on your butt and punch holes through the sky like GW Bush did in the guard, then you’ve earned the right to criticize his service but until then your nothing.
How have we treated Muslims bad? Did we outlaw their religious practices or forbid them from assembling together? Did we burn their Mosques and places of worship? Did we not allow them into this country and educate them in our schools and training centers? Did we not welcome them into our communities? Did we not support them as they started businesses? Did we not send them foreign aid, teach them how to develop their recourses, and increase their standard of living?
BobF:
I think Sam The Man (I’m still laughing about that) is beyond, or beneath, or incapable of grasping, the facts and logic of your polite response. Sam seems to have escaped for the afternoon and found a computer lounge. They’ll track him down soon and take him back to the “hotel”.
Leaving aside the errant stupidity in each simple sentence, we have Sam claiming that Kerry should handle this because he’s a “Vet, and he’s “Military” (with capital letters?) but also claiming (I think) that the war is unjust, unnecessary and wrong. This is The Sam Theory…vets are better at handling wars that shouldn’t be fought.
Sam, if they haven’t already come for you, send another post.
Hi Jack, I vote for taking him out unconditionally too. Thanks!
That is just what they are too Washington, barbarians.And I pray we do not ever let them dictate to us. Thank you.
Sam, ditto to what BobF said! He said it better then I could. And Bob is a Veteran so listen up Sam the Man!
You Republicans say we should not cut and run and yet that is what Bush did when he supposedly was in the MILITARY. Kerry did not run and has never lied. Bush is a liar. He is a war criminal and one day, count on it, he will be tried and punished. Bush stole both elections and you know it. So I am supposed to listen to this Bob because you say he is a Vet? At least Kerry protested a wrong war as soon as he could when he got back from Vietnam. He had to try and make amends for the killing of innocents in Vietnam.
Will Bush make amends for killing babies in Iraq. For killing innocent women and children in Iraq? He is worse then Saddam and you know it. The maniacs have taken over our government. Thank God for Cindy Sheehan that gets the truth out there. I would vote for her in a split second against Diane Feinstein. What about the Iraqi child after a US bomb “freed” him…of his skull. And we have all seen photos of the countless abuses at the hands of our soldiers at Gitmo and other prisons.SUICIDE BOMBERS HAVE had enough!!!!!! Maybe their methods are horribly wrong, but by god if our kids were being murdered and maimed in our streets, as the children of Iraq are who knows what any of us would be willing to do to stop the people doing these things to our children?And many of the other suicide bombers are forced to drive the cars that cause such death and destruction with their families held hostage! Would you want to live like that? I do not think so.This is what the liar you elected to run this country into the ground has done. Ask yourself if his actions are the actions of a true Christian. Cutting off old people from their medicine, bombing innocent children, women and elderly. Torture of innocent people!!! AREN”T YOU PROUD NOW!!!!!!!!!! Are you still proud to be an American and a Christian as your President claims to be? This is what he orders in our names!It’s not a joke you uneducated morons. These are human beings pushed beyond their endurance, their families destroyed.
Sam The Man:
You are clearly off your rocker. There are so many crude disturbances in your reasoning that it would be impossible to discuss ANY issue with you, much less attempt to dump the evil stew of paranoid fantasy swirling inside your skull.
You first paragraph is actually frightening in its delusions, but seems to open the door to your other manias and deliriums, for which I’m thankful. It’s given you an outlet, and for the time being, people around you are safe and no witches have been burned or cows cursed with sour milk by the demons behind your eyeballs.
I’m serious about this, Sam. This tightly-woven skein of hallucinations reinforced by your self-righteous rage and wooly thinking is a manifestation of something very wrong. The world is a terrible place, I know. I also know you think of yourself as pure, as caring, as a sort of Mini-Savior for the wounded of the world and Bush as Satan, but this arrogance, grandiosity and pissed-off Christ identification has left you quite nuts.
All your words, all the nightmarish visions and connections you’ve made to link together the Moloch Bush with your fears and prejudices is not doing you any good at all. The world outside your head is very different.
WT:
I’ve read Sam’s last post over and over, and it presents two possibilities. It’s either written by someone permanently around the bend, or it’s written by the wanker(s) who wrote the post in caps recently, trying to sound like a Middle Easterner. My guess is the second.
This, of course, is even worse. It’s from California, hence the reference to Feinstein, and it seems to come from a conference of ideas from skinny-armed, pizza-faced morons with double cowlicks. Lefty kids. A genuine psycho is more interesting, smarter and has better prospects.
Hi Rhod haha
I was thinking he might be either a child of a hippie from the 60’s or an elderly hippie himself. But now after reading what you said I think you hit the nail on the head.
I kinda think Sam is possibly apolitical and just getting a buzz aggravating people. He/she/it probably writes on different sites under different names.
SAM THE MAN??? put down the crack pipe cuzzz
its fried your Brain?? As for Iran,if they want
to play hard ball,hey its called 18 empty tubes,
a mushroom cloud,its Miller time!!!!
Hi Tom giggle I like the he/she/it thingie you posted. hahahaha
Bet your right about posting all over the place.
Thanks Tom.
Hi subhunter, nice to meet you. Thanks for commenting. And look out Iran we do know how to do Miller time. 🙂
Sam
You say Kerry didn’t cut and run? Let’s look at Lt. Jg Kerry. Being a commander of a Swift Boat, like Lt. Jg Kerry was, means he was the leader of his men. He was responsible for the training, morale, fitness, well being, and most of all the lives of those men under his command. He was the Officer in Charge and had the responsibility. His job and duty was to see these guys made it through the war and accomplished the missions assigned to them. On that Swift Boat he was the Old Man, the boss, the CO. How did Lt Jg Kerry accept his responsibilities? Lets see, the first chance he got he left his men high and dry. You’re fighting a war and you have put your life in this guys hands and suddenly, without warning, he is gone. Not because of higher headquarters orders but because he found a way out in the system and took it. He didn’t have to take it but he did. How many NCOs’ and Officers could have taken early returns on deployments but refused because they wouldn’t leave their men behind. I once had to order a young NCO back to the states while on a deployment because his wife was due to have their baby very soon and there was the chance of complications. He didn’t want to leave because his aircraft and people were still there and he felt his place was with them.
Now I want you to put yourself in the places of these enlisted men on Kerry’s Swift Boat. Here you are stuck in this forsaken country for at least one year and an officer, a rich kid from an influential family with strong political connections, is your Skipper and suddenly after only 4 months he is gone, on his way back to the states with a chest full of medals. What would you have said or done 35 years ago when this happened? Being an enlisted man myself, I know what these men would have said and it wasn’t “good luck”. Those guys, the ones that were on stage with him, would have probably fragged him in a heart beat…fragging is when the troops kill their own officers because they are untrustworthy. And then, to top it off, this officer, your former leader is telling the world that YOU murdered innocent people, YOU were war criminal, and YOU are a lowlife. He was not talking about Army Special Forces, Infantry, or Marines. All he saw was Swift Boat Action so when he said he witnessed atrocities he could only have been talking about “Swifties”. You tell me how you would have felt if you were one of those men? Your CO. just betrayed you to the world by fabricated falsehoods to further his goals.
Thank you WT, Rhod, Washington and BobF, sorry ’bout the late comments, long day yesterday and an even longer story about the adventure, just too tired last night to comment.
Jeez…what an ill informed narrow minded idiotic statement. First off Sam the Man, you don’t have to be a Veteran to lead, historicly some of this nations best leaders have come from the civilian walks of life, every Veteran out there knows this, that’s why John F. Kerry isn’t our elected leader. John F Kerry has zero integrity, he has led a privileged life of being protected. Even when he lost his draft deferment status he had three choices, be drafted, become a fugitive or join the military, these were the same choices we all had at the time. He chose to join the Navy and used his connections pull strings to get him into swift boats which weren’t pulling combat missions at the time. As soon as he found himself in a bind by being sent on combat patrols he used the loophole of being wounded to get out, some of his band-aid wounds were very superficial or self inflicted. I personally have seen gravely wounded men leave the hospital early or without being discharged to go back and stand alongside their fellow soldiers, that great war hero John F Kerry did the opposite, he cut and ran. The very terms of Kerry’s discharge are clouded in mystery, if he had any honor he would share his DD214 information by filling out the request form 180, just like George W. Bush has disclosed. I sent for copies of my own records, it took less than two weeks to get them, Kerry promised the nation on national television that he would do the same, that was well over a year ago. What is John Kerry hiding, a false record or a BCD? Sam the Man your hero is a sham, who left his battle station to come back and openly commit sedition and acts of treason by aiding the enemies of this nation, so unless your are an enemy of this nation you would clearly see that John F. Kerry lacks the fortitude, integrity and courage to lead this great nation in it’s time of need. You said we people don’t have a clue, yes I do have a clue Sam the Man, those of us who spilled our blood in the laterite soil of Vietnam know when we have a leader without balls running the country.
FDR was not the father of our country, he gave Eastern Europe over to slavery and genocide under Soviet style Communism, LBJ was not the first cut and run president but he certainly gave our enemies the impression that we wouldn’t keep our commitments, our word, nor fulfill our obligations, massive Communist genocide occurred in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos as a result. Another beauty from your side is Jimmy Carter, who can be directly linked to the present day crisis in Iran, the man who sat on his ass for over a year and did nothing about the hostages taken in Iran in 1979, the man who is currently undermining this nations ability to protect itself from foreign aggression.
You say Cheney is an ass and so is Bush. Bush wasn’t my first choice as president, I would have picked Cheney as the President and GWB as the Vice President. But overall GWB has performed magnificently, he is human and bumbles a bit because he cares about doing the right thing. Cheney on the other hand I feel would have been more decisive, and Iran right now would by begging for a ceasefire. So go ahead and be an apologist for your Muslim friends, support your hero John F. Kerry and live your life in Dhimmitude. One of our past leaders at the founding of this great nation said it better than anyone Sam the Man:
“If ye love wealth greater than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest for freedom, go home and leave us in peace. We seek not your council nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen.”
–Samuel Adams
Bob and Jack:
Wonderful posts, and they illustrate another reason why I love this country and the men and women who’ve defended it in our foreign and hometown wars. What you wrote wasn’t easy to write; it stirs up lots of things we’d like to leave alone, and grappling with the insane is tiring but sometimes necessary.
That’s no joke. Even though Sam’s parallel reality has no language for your words and no room for your truths, I needed to read these things again. Sam is a stain on our country and our civilization, and you guys are the bright lights. Thanks.
Bob,Jack,and Rhod…. I am going to write to each of you in this post. Thanks Rhod for the idea of doing that on this.
I wish I could give each one of you a big hug.
So many times I sit here and delete posts that I do not want published on here. Some of them are so badly written I can barely tell what they are saying. Others by the Muslims are just hate and no real comments to post back to.
You have all served our country and it breaks my heart that any of you still have to fight for what is right even if it is with words. You are why I live in a free land and I can never repay you all for that, not even a little bit.
I wish I had known you when you came back from serving. I would have had a hug Welcome Home sign and all my friends and family cheering for you.
Please know it means everything to me that you come here and join in the way you do. Like Rhod said, it takes a lot out of you to write some of the things and go there when it would be easier just to stay away from it. So with all my heart I thank you. And thank you for your kindness and friendship.
You make a difference more then you know to more people than you realize.
((hug))
WT:
I’ve never, ever felt a moment’s regret, or a feeling that anyone is indebted to me for my service. I was the luckiest of men; things could have certainly been better, and also much worse. But the open wounds are for the 57,000 of us who are no longer here. I’m indebted to them, and all the men in all the wars that preceded ours. I came out under my own power, and prefer to leave the details at rest.
I feel no intra-service rivalry, have no axe to grind with anyone, and I respect and honor the men of the 173rd, the 7th Cav, the 1st Cav, the 4th Div, the 1st Div, the 82nd the 1st Brigade of the 101st, especially the 25th, the Marines at Hue and Khe Sanh and elsewhere, and all the units I’ve left out..I think I know them all.
And for every one of us there’s an American who would have gone in our place and done what he was called to do, but the dice rolled the other way. One of those willing people might have been you (if we change some things, hah) or AOS, so we’re ALL veterans here.
Whatever was lacking when we came back, has been provided over the years by couples like you. Sincere thanks to you, AOS, and my Band of Brothers.
Sam The Man
That name in it’s self is a joke. I believe old Sam is a lefty from Kos or just a plain left wing Democrat. When he refers to the torture at Abby Grabby I have to laugh. I have undergone worse treatment at graduation from an NCO academy and at camp. I think this turd really does not know what torture is. Then he gives John Kerry as the example of a leader. Kerry was a joke. Before the Swift Boat guys came out and told the truth about this boob I had said something was fishy about someone with 3 purple hearts that never spent a day in the hospital. I was wounded twice the first time on my first tour I spent a week on a hospital ship and was returned to duty. The second time on my second tour I spent three months in two different hospitals. So Kerry did not pass the smell test. Sam you are a lousy fool and a liar these dogs we are fighting blow up there own people and in fire fights hide behind women and children. The US troops have gone to great lengths to avoid civilian casualties and have done so better than anyone in any war. So either you are an idiot and don’t know the truth or you are just a vile liar and do know the truth. I believe it is the latter.