No, no. I just meant that I would like to put flowers on his grave. I thought that would be a nice gesture for American-Iranian friendship. As I understand it, the 1905 revolution is something that belongs to all Iranians, marking it is not taking a side in any current Iranian internal dispute. <div>
<br></div><div>It turns out that under current circumstances it can be a little complicated for Americans to get visas to go to Iran; I have tried a few times. I am sure that I will succeed eventually. <br><br><div class="gmail_quote">
On Mon, Dec 31, 2012 at 3:02 PM, "E. Wayne Johnson 朱稳森" <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:ewj@pigsqq.org" target="_blank">ewj@pigsqq.org</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
<u></u>
<div bgcolor="#ffffff" text="#000000">
<font face="Baskerville Old Face">I thought at first you meant you
would lead a militia like Baskerville did<br>
and unleash the hounds of war, and then I<br>
thought you would put some flowers on his grave.<br>
<br>
It seems simple enough to get an Iran visa if you have not been to
Israel or<br>
dont have Israel stamps and visas in your passport.<br>
</font><br>
<br>
<br>
On 01/01/13 4:52, Robert Naiman wrote<div><div class="h5"><br>
<blockquote type="cite">
<div><br>
</div>
Baskerville leads off a chapter in Kinzer's book. I suggested to Kinzer
that he include that in his column on Hagel because of the Nebraska
connection. Historically Baskerville was a big deal in Iran. Supposedly
there was a tradition of placing flowers at his grave. If the Iranian
government ever gives me a visa, I will do the same.
<div><br>
</div>
<div><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howard_Baskerville" target="_blank">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howard_Baskerville</a></div>
<div> <br>
<br>
<div class="gmail_quote">On Mon, Dec 31, 2012 at 2:23 PM, "E. Wayne
Johnson 朱稳森" <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:ewj@pigsqq.org" target="_blank">ewj@pigsqq.org</a>></span>
wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);margin:0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex;padding-left:1ex">
<div bgcolor="#ffffff" text="#000000">
The first empires were that of Egypt (the pyramid builders), ancient
Iraq, and the Xia period in China.<br>
These all preceded the Persian empire by more than 1000 years, plus or
minus a couple of weeks or so.<br>
<br>
Kinzer also fails to mention the Vise-Grip wrench was invented in
DeWitt, Nebraska in 1924 by<br>
Bill Petersen. Of course, Petersen was born in Denmark, which is
neither part of the<br>
Nebraskan empire nor the Persian ones.<br>
<br>
Kinzer is quite the hound to find that piece about Baskerville.
<div>
<div><br>
<br>
<br>
On 01/01/13 3:11, Robert Naiman wrote:
</div>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite">
<div>
<div>
<div class="gmail_quote">
<div><br>
</div>
<a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/dec/31/chuck-hagel-big-problem-realist-iran" target="_blank">http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/dec/31/chuck-hagel-big-problem-realist-iran</a>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>
<h1 style="margin:0px 0px 2px;padding:0px;width:460px;font-weight:normal;border-bottom-color:rgb(0,97,166);border-top-width:0px;line-height:1.154;border-collapse:collapse;border-left-color:rgb(0,97,166);color:rgb(51,51,51);border-right-color:rgb(0,97,166);font-size:2.166em;font-family:georgia,serif">
Chuck
Hagel's
big problem: being a realist about American power and Iran</h1>
<p style="margin:0px;padding:0px 0px 34px;line-height:1.25;border-collapse:collapse;color:rgb(102,102,102);width:460px;font-size:1.333em;font-family:arial,sans-serif">The
former
Nebraska senator faces fierce opposition to possible nomination
as defense secretary from Washington's militarists</p>
<ul style="border-color:rgb(0,97,166);border-top:1px solid rgb(0,97,166);border-bottom:1px solid rgb(0,97,166);margin:0px 0px 10px;padding:2px 0px 12px;overflow:hidden;border-collapse:collapse;list-style-type:none;font-size:12px;line-height:1.25;min-height:66px;color:rgb(51,51,51)">
<li style="margin:0px;padding:0px;overflow:hidden;border-collapse:collapse">
<ul style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border-collapse:collapse;list-style-type:none">
<li style="margin:0px;padding:0px;overflow:hidden;border-collapse:collapse;display:block">
<div style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border-collapse:collapse"><span style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border-collapse:collapse;font-weight:bold"><span style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border-collapse:collapse"><a rel="author" href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/stephenkinzer" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border-collapse:collapse;color:rgb(0,86,137)" target="_blank">Stephen Kinzer</a></span></span></div>
</li>
<li style="margin:0px;padding:0px;overflow:hidden;border-collapse:collapse"><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border-collapse:collapse;color:rgb(0,86,137)" target="_blank">guardian.co.uk</a>, Monday 31 December 2012 11.30 EST</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<p style="margin:0px 0px 13px;padding:0px;line-height:16.3636px;border-collapse:collapse;color:rgb(51,51,51);font-size:13.6364px;font-family:arial,sans-serif">What
do <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/nebraska" title="More from guardian.co.uk on Nebraska" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border-collapse:collapse;color:rgb(0,86,137)" target="_blank">Nebraska</a> and <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/iran" title="More from guardian.co.uk on Iran" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border-collapse:collapse;color:rgb(0,86,137)" target="_blank">Iran</a> have in common? Not much – but enough to
cause big trouble for former Nebraska Senator Chuck Hagel, whose
possible nomination to be secretary of defense is being challenged by
the powerful bomb-Iran-yesterday lobby.</p>
<div>
<p style="margin:0px 0px 13px;padding:0px;line-height:16.3636px;border-collapse:collapse;color:rgb(51,51,51);font-size:13.6364px;font-family:arial,sans-serif">Iran,
in
its former incarnation as Persia, created the world's first empire,
produced titanic figures like Cyrus, Darius, and Xerxes, and is one of
the great fonts of world culture. Nebraska was home to indigenous
peoples for centuries. It became a state in 1867, and has produced an
important literary figure, Willa Cather, as well as an investor said to
be the world's second richest man, Warren Buffett.</p>
</div>
<div>
<p style="margin:0px 0px 13px;padding:0px;line-height:16.3636px;border-collapse:collapse;color:rgb(51,51,51);font-size:13.6364px;font-family:arial,sans-serif">Nebraska
also,
however, produced fighters long before Chuck Hagel emerged. Crazy
Horse, "Wild Bill" Cody, and General John Pershing were born there.</p>
<p style="margin:0px 0px 13px;padding:0px;line-height:16.3636px;border-collapse:collapse;color:rgb(51,51,51);font-size:13.6364px;font-family:arial,sans-serif">A
group
called Nebraskans for Peace has spent years waging a campaign
against the US Strategic Command, which controls America's strategic
arsenal from a base in Omaha. The <a href="http://nebraskansforpeace.org/" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border-collapse:collapse;color:rgb(0,86,137)" target="_blank">current headline on its website is</a>, "Don't Bomb
Iran."</p>
<p style="margin:0px 0px 13px;padding:0px;line-height:16.3636px;border-collapse:collapse;color:rgb(51,51,51);font-size:13.6364px;font-family:arial,sans-serif">Here
is the heart of the case against Senator Hagel's nomination.</p>
<p style="margin:0px 0px 13px;padding:0px;line-height:16.3636px;border-collapse:collapse;color:rgb(51,51,51);font-size:13.6364px;font-family:arial,sans-serif"><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/dec/22/hagel-zero-dark-thirty-msnbc" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border-collapse:collapse;color:rgb(0,86,137)" target="_blank">Militarists in Washington, taking their cue from
pro-Israel lobbyists, are trying to derail the appointment</a> because
Hagel doubts the wisdom of starting another war in the Middle East.
Their evidence is <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/security/2006/04/13/4825/hagel-iran/" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border-collapse:collapse;color:rgb(0,86,137)" target="_blank">his assertion, made several years ago</a>, that:</p>
<blockquote style="margin:0px 40px 10px;padding:0px;line-height:16.3636px;border-collapse:collapse;color:rgb(102,102,102);font-size:13.6364px;font-family:arial,sans-serif">
<p style="margin:0px 0px 13px;padding:0px;border-collapse:collapse">"A
military
strike against Iran, a military option, is not a viable,
feasible, responsible option."</p>
</blockquote>
<p style="margin:0px 0px 13px;padding:0px;line-height:16.3636px;border-collapse:collapse;color:rgb(51,51,51);font-size:13.6364px;font-family:arial,sans-serif">Hagel
is absolutely correct. Like many thoughtful Americans, including
some of our country's most seasoned diplomats, he is eager to make a
real effort to engage Iran. No American president has done that since
Jimmy Carter's presidency was immolated in the wake of the hostage
crisis – except for Ronald Reagan, who tried sending Iranian leaders a
cake and a Bible, to no avail.</p>
<p style="margin:0px 0px 13px;padding:0px;line-height:16.3636px;border-collapse:collapse;color:rgb(51,51,51);font-size:13.6364px;font-family:arial,sans-serif">Part
of what has led Hagel to recommend a calm, reasoned, prudent
approach to Iran is his own worldview. He is among the few in
Washington who do not seem to have accepted the century-old principle
that in order to defend its interests, the <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/usa" title="More from guardian.co.uk on United States" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border-collapse:collapse;color:rgb(0,86,137)" target="_blank">United States</a> must be involved everywhere in the
world, all the time.</p>
<p style="margin:0px 0px 13px;padding:0px;line-height:16.3636px;border-collapse:collapse;color:rgb(51,51,51);font-size:13.6364px;font-family:arial,sans-serif">Hagel
is said to be "outside the mainstream" because he does not
believe American power can solve people's problems around the world.
That is, indeed, outside the mainstream. Everyone from Pentagon
deadenders to Human Rights Watch, for example, is trying to dissuade
President Obama from his commitment to remove all American troops from
Afghanistan by 2014. Hagel thinks it's a fine idea.</p>
<p style="margin:0px 0px 13px;padding:0px;line-height:16.3636px;border-collapse:collapse;color:rgb(51,51,51);font-size:13.6364px;font-family:arial,sans-serif">Another
charge against Hagel is that he has <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/dec/20/defence-chuck-hagel-washington-post-war" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border-collapse:collapse;color:rgb(0,86,137)" target="_blank">described the defense budget as "bloated"</a>. That
this can be considered controversial is a measure of how far from
reality Washington has slipped. It is like describing Washington's
summer climate as "warm" or Congress as "divided".</p>
<p style="margin:0px 0px 13px;padding:0px;line-height:16.3636px;border-collapse:collapse;color:rgb(51,51,51);font-size:13.6364px;font-family:arial,sans-serif">Hagel's
biggest problem, though, is Iran.</p>
<p style="margin:0px 0px 13px;padding:0px;line-height:16.3636px;border-collapse:collapse;color:rgb(51,51,51);font-size:13.6364px;font-family:arial,sans-serif">He
wants
to see whether a deal between the United States and Iran is
possible. Such a deal is the nightmare scenario for Israeli Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and those around him. They foolishly
believe it would endanger Israeli security. In fact, it would do the
opposite: reduce the threat from Iran by bringing it into the Middle
East security system, rather than pushing it ever further into
isolation and anger.</p>
<p style="margin:0px 0px 13px;padding:0px;line-height:16.3636px;border-collapse:collapse;color:rgb(51,51,51);font-size:13.6364px;font-family:arial,sans-serif">Challenging
orthodoxy is a death sentence in Washington. It may result
in the demise of Senator Hagel's prospects. But his willingness to
challenge dogma about Iran has deep roots in Nebraska.</p>
<p style="margin:0px 0px 13px;padding:0px;line-height:16.3636px;border-collapse:collapse;color:rgb(51,51,51);font-size:13.6364px;font-family:arial,sans-serif">Only
one
American has given his life for Iranian democracy. He was a young
idealist from Nebraska named Howard Baskerville. In 1907, fresh out of
Princeton, Baskerville went to Iran as a schoolteacher. He found
himself in the midst of a revolution against tyranny, and was carried
away with passion for the democratic cause.</p>
<p style="margin:0px 0px 13px;padding:0px;line-height:16.3636px;border-collapse:collapse;color:rgb(51,51,51);font-size:13.6364px;font-family:arial,sans-serif">Rejecting
protests from the local American consul, he shaped a group of
his students into a military column. <a href="http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/baskerville-howard-c" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border-collapse:collapse;color:rgb(0,86,137)" target="_blank">On 20 April 1909, he was killed</a> while leading them
into battle.</p>
<p style="margin:0px 0px 13px;padding:0px;line-height:16.3636px;border-collapse:collapse;color:rgb(51,51,51);font-size:13.6364px;font-family:arial,sans-serif">Baskerville
believed countries should be allowed to choose their own
paths, whether or not big powers agreed. So did another notable
Nebraskan, Senator George Norris, who voted against both United States
entry into first world war and American membership in the League of
Nations.</p>
<p style="margin:0px 0px 13px;padding:0px;line-height:16.3636px;border-collapse:collapse;color:rgb(51,51,51);font-size:13.6364px;font-family:arial,sans-serif">Norris
told Americans that the push toward global engagement was the
project of "munition manufacturers, stockbrokers, and bond dealers";
and he warned that it "brings no prosperity to the great mass of common
and patriotic citizens".</p>
<p style="margin:0px 0px 13px;padding:0px;line-height:16.3636px;border-collapse:collapse;color:rgb(51,51,51);font-size:13.6364px;font-family:arial,sans-serif">Hagel
is in the great American tradition of the prairie populist. He
has sought to speak a word or two of truth to power. Power is not
amused. That is why his nomination is in trouble before it has even
been announced.</p>
<span><font color="#888888">
<p style="margin:0px 0px 13px;padding:0px;line-height:16.3636px;border-collapse:collapse;color:rgb(51,51,51);font-size:13.6364px;font-family:arial,sans-serif"><br>
</p>
</font></span></div>
<span><font color="#888888">-- <br>
Robert Naiman<br>
Policy Director<br>
Just Foreign Policy<br>
<a href="http://www.justforeignpolicy.org" target="_blank">www.justforeignpolicy.org</a><br>
<a href="mailto:naiman@justforeignpolicy.org" target="_blank">naiman@justforeignpolicy.org</a><br>
</font></span></div>
<div><br>
</div>
</div>
<br>
</div>
</div>
<pre><fieldset></fieldset>
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</pre>
</blockquote>
<br>
</div>
</blockquote>
</div>
<br>
<br clear="all">
<div><br>
</div>
-- <br>
Robert Naiman<br>
Policy Director<br>
Just Foreign Policy<br>
<a href="http://www.justforeignpolicy.org" target="_blank">www.justforeignpolicy.org</a><br>
<a href="mailto:naiman@justforeignpolicy.org" target="_blank">naiman@justforeignpolicy.org</a><br>
</div>
</blockquote>
<br>
</div></div></div>
</blockquote></div><br><br clear="all"><div><br></div>-- <br>Robert Naiman<br>Policy Director<br>Just Foreign Policy<br><a href="http://www.justforeignpolicy.org" target="_blank">www.justforeignpolicy.org</a><br><a href="mailto:naiman@justforeignpolicy.org" target="_blank">naiman@justforeignpolicy.org</a><br>
</div>