Happy New Year to the Youth

The New Year arrived along with the embargo on Iran’s Central Bank, the war games of the Iranian regime, and the threats to the Straits of Hormuz, the last of which can be the spot for adventures that are not in the interest of anyone. The actions of Iran and the US are not promoting world peace. Peace is threatened through their games whose rules change every moment as they adjust to the domestic battles. Iran’s regime is prisoner to the slogans it has been accumulating for years and has become unable to adjust these slogans to correspond to the realities of today’s world. The Iranian mind is captive to slogans that are condemned to be eventually changed but at a great cost to the Iranian nation. Young Iranians who speak from inside the Revolutionary Guards Corps and Basij militia about international politics and take positions demonstrate their lack of understanding of the real world and a proper view of the effective players around them. When they engage in political discussions regarding relations with the West and the war, they treat the issues in historic mythical terms. From their perspective, there is devil on one side which is bloody, while Mr. Khamenei stands on the other side with his troops who are presented as victims and sufferers. And he wants to bury the devil. Iranian Basij kids have been kept in an immature political vicious circle of good versus bad. There is no alternative middle in their brainwashed minds. They see themselves to be righteous while all others are evil. They have been indoctrinated to view the world unrealistically. The zeal to engage in war in the spirit of these youth cannot bring respect to Iran or the world, and it cannot bring welfare, happiness and security to the Iranian people.

They innocently say: We did not expect Obama to act this way.

Amid the complex game of international politics, this small complaint is a sufficient gesture to raise alarm about the future which these young people want to build and be part of. While the Iranian regime possesses a colossal budget and educational technology, it has not wanted to tell the young Guardsmen and Basijis that when Mr. Obama sent Nowruz greetings to them the gesture did not mean that he would disregard the national interests of the superpower he represents in the world and that he had turned into subservience to Mr. Khamenei. Our young Guardsmen and Basijis were not taught that before they step into the boxing ring they must have an understanding of their own power and that of their adversary. It is not without reason that in the tradition of Iranian classical wrestling there were individuals around the wrestling mat whose job was precisely to prevent a fight between completely unequal rivals. Today, Mr. Chavez is encouraging Iranian youth from the edge of the wrestling mat. The beast of war with a superpower should not be imposed on the young Iranian Basijis and Guardsmen whose energy and abilities can be used to provide welfare and professional and legal security to the nation. The pride and human dignity of these youth will be crushed if they are caught in an unequal war. Instead of building their pride, they will be caught in a slipping unequal war while the swords of other oil rich entities in the region watch. The pride will turn into defeat and this rich resource of the country will turn to depression. Iran will remain alone in this game. And just as loneliness can result in suicide, the fate of regimes that live under grandiose illusions and charge the youth with the same myths can move in a direction exactly opposite to their slogans. The fire that will be started through this illusion will not hurt the regime alone but will become a load on the shoulders of a nation which for the last 33 years has either given lives or raised its hands to the heavens so that reason may return to its rulers.

The year 2012 will be a year with many misfortunes for Iranians. The US is bent on destroying the ailing economy of Iran while the Iranian regime presents this American game foolishly and provides the US justification for its actions. The million Iranian émigrés who live outside the country are only one testament of the thoughtless behavior of the Iranian regime while the rest of the population that sits at empty food tables inside the country and awaits its turn to visit a prison to see their loved ones is the other testament. A regime that has itself created groups and groups of opponents and prisoners and refugees, and despite the enormous wealth at its disposal has embarked on nothing but imports from China burying domestic production as it chops off the hands of simple destitute thieves, is providing justification for the plans and actions of the US while its opponents outside the country have learned through experience and act against a Western war with Iran and display their detestation for it. But war can come despite such protests.

In this psychological battle, the pressure of war is growing. Individuals whose pains and cries of peace are not heard, are the very immigrants outside Iran who condemn war even as Iranians inside the country condemn the émigrés. This is a group that is neither happy living outside its homeland nor does it have the possibility of going back home. This group is perplexed on how to respond to those inside the country who have put their hopes in war in order to get rid of the regime that has imposed itself on them. The Islamic republic of Iran is expert at creating refugees, poverty, corruption, divisions, cruelty, and injustice. It has also created a sizeable population - mostly in Iran – which openly curses the émigrés for their positions and which says: You are in a safe place: Do you really think this cruel regime will leave without a war?

So here we are watching all this, listening to these cries and not knowing how to respond to the non-Basij and non-Guardsmen sufferers inside Iran who have become supportive of war and who have no fear of being hurt as a way to get rid of the regime over them.

These are hard times but 2012 will be harder.

Happy New Year