No

Dear Firedup, it goes without saying that you created this survey based on what I had posted earlier today. My reason being the prevailing debate among respected members of this site in regards to the future of our country. All those names mentioned by you are representatives of long gone ideologies that are either non existent or can only survive by using force and suppressing their own people. Anyone who answers yes to your survey is delusional and an extereme rare case. However, as evident by the result of my survey (so far), it is fair to say that the jury is still out there. I'm no commie., no monarchist, no Islamist, did not support Khomeini but do not believe that any of western powers are our friends either. What I like to see on this great forum created by Mr. Javid is a fair critic of U.S., U.K. and other western governments policies that are harmful to our nation. It is disturbing to witness how some of our members take matters for granted.We have to question anything and everything, there is no such a thing called taboo. All we need to do is to study what went on in our country in the last 120 years. As that famous saying goes " those who don't learn from history are damned to repeat it"

Dear Kamal

That is a problem among some of this site's users.

You only have to say god is good then you are an IRI rep.

You only have to say something about a celebriity then you are a woman.

Say something about US politics then you are a leftish.

BUT worth than all they all demanding democracy yet have NOT digested  the full meaning of free speech.

HOPEFULLY ONE DAY THEY WILL LEARN.

What "policies" are "harmful to our nation"? Sanctions against the IRI?

Dear AK4U, you have a point but we are discussing issues that there are no easy answers for them. The first step for all of us must be honesty and open mindedness about our beliefs. There is no point in coming here if we feel that we have figured everything out. The purpose of a healthy forum should be a place where all participants can voice their opinion free of being insulted, falsely labeled, harassed by other members. It is unfortunate to see a gang up mentality against certain members including myself which as you may have witnessed has zero effect on me after near 40 years of being among all kinds of "olaahis" from shah to Khomeini to Lenin to.... which by living in close proximity of Harvard University and its very active Middle Eastern Studies Department I have the privilege of listening to real experts from all sorts of ideologies but I can see effects of being intimidated on some of the members who dare to sing a different tune. One final note, I'm here to learn, revisit my past and if necessary, correct my out of date ideas. I respect most members here, particularly Mr. Kadivar (despite our differences) and applaud him for his vast knowledge of world affairs and in most part his openness to admitting mistakes.

Dear Amir, Sanctions are only one item on the list which I admit that it is a controversial case. If the choice is between going to war or suffer the sanctions I will surely vote for sanctions but I'm well aware of true victims of it which are the ordinary people. Sepaah as you well know operates a well organized Mafia system that can import goods through vast borders of our great country and then sell it to the poor masses for a huge profit but for the sake of a healthy debate let's examine some other cases in recent history. 1) shooting down an Iranian passenger plane which by most accounts was impossible to be mistaken with a fighter jet on a radar screen. p.s. U.S. paid money to the survivors of the victims. 2) Germany selling chemical weapons to Saddam when they were well aware of his intentions. 3) U.S. providing Saddam with satellite info of Iranian army movements. 4) U.S. and U.K. going to war against Iraq despite of not getting a resolution from U.N. p.s. Saddam was a brutal man and deserved to be punished, but going to war, destroying a soveirn country's infrastructure based on phony charges, all of that to get one man? Then why all these other dictators are roaming free? I'm not a historian, these were a few events that rushed to my mind but there are countless of other atrocities that have been committed in the name of freedom and democracy.

prosperity and freedom from these bunch (our domestic bunch) you mentioned above is oxymoronic. It is more like: long lines for bread, toilet paper and meat, followed by low standard of living , no productivity and good dosage of goolag style educatioanl camp. Too bad these folks did not come to power to enlighten us!

Now as for Russia and China, well they are great looters and they are doing a great job of ripping us off. One is building never ending nuclear reactors costing us zillions of dollars (not that any body keeps the tab) and the other one is flooding Iranain market with Junk with the help rev guards and destroying what ever is left factories and infrastructure. So all is well. cheers.

The word sovereign was misspelled in my above comment.Please forgive.

@kamalFM: Many Western policies in this world are indefensible, but the "East" (China, Russia, etc) are worse. I agree with some of your points and disagree with others. Your Items 1, 2, and 3 are related to the Iran-Iraq War (and that includes the wrongful shooting down by the USS Vincennes of the Iranian civilian airliner, which happened in the midst of a virtual war zone). Yes, the Western countries were wrong to back Saddam (even though his biggest arms supplier was the USSR, and Iran at least still had some of its American arms from the Shah's time, received some more from Israel and the US through Iran Contra, and also was helped by Israel bombing Iraq's Osirak reactor). Yes, the Germans and others were wrong to sell Saddam chemical weapons. But the fundamental fact of that war, in my opinion, was the completely unjustified extension of it for another 6 years (1982 to 1988) by Khomeini, so that he could conquer Karbala and Qods. Most of the death and destruction took place in those 6 years, and the blame for that falls squarely on Khomeini's shoulders, not on the Western powers. As far as Item 4, one can certainly debate whether the invasion of Iraq and overthrow of Saddam was right or wrong (I think it was wrong), but Iran was hardly an aggrieved party. In fact, one could argue that Iran was helped by having its enemy, Saddam, overthrown. Besides these details and back-and-forths, my bigger problem is with our Iranian tendency towards xenophobia and blaming Western powers for our problems. The truth is that Iranians have proven that they can screw up and screw over Iran better than any Western power.

Dear Amri1973: Please write your informative comments into a blog. Many people are not aware of the details of devestating war. My brother could have been alive if it were not for Khomeini's bloodlust for expansion of that devestating war. thx.

From Amir1973:

"The truth is that Iranians have proven that they can screw up and screw over Iran better than any Western power."

Put this phrase on a big billboard and hang it on the neck of every stupid dimwit who participated or contributed to the 1979 distaster of the islamist takeover .                                                      

Amir, Your points regarding Khomeini dragging the war, role of USSR/Russia and China are accurate and you won't hear anything to the contrary from me. I will even go further to say that if I were in position of power in Iran I would rather to take my chances with likes of U.S. and U.K. than Russia or China. Still, one look at the blogs and surveys of just the past few weeks on this page reveals an unbalance quantity of posts in favor of western powers. What is wrong with exposing the criminal acts of both sides regardless of their ties to murderer IRI? You rightfully hinted at some of them but Khomeini's unforgivable act by refusing to sign a peace treaty ( mainly to use war as a coverup of economic crisis) does not.exonerate U.S. and others of their unlawful acts. Same logic applies to invasion of Iraq. Just because Iran benefitted.from removal of its enemy, it does not justify an unnecessary war.

p.s. I too believe that us Iranians are our own worst enemies and have tried to expose this fact in my posts.