"Change We Need, Change We Did!"
By Kourosh Ziabari
13 November,
2008
Countercurrents.org
"It's been a long time coming, but tonight, because of what we did on this day, in this election, at this defining moment, change has come to America."
Among the noisy hollers of jubilant, excited swarms who had been gathered in Chicago to celebrate the official announcement of President-elect Barack Obama's victory in competition with the old-hand Sen. John McCain during a 21 month campaign for the 2008 US Presidential elections, yells of "Yes, we can" by the excited, hopeful Americans raised the expectations for a defining – at least – four years epoch of repose and tranquility under a moderate, pacifist 47-year old who is said to be going to alleviate the flames of hostility and animosity blazed by the warmonger ex-President Bush worldwide.
Almost everyday during the past 8 years while the republican George Walker Bush was holding office in the White House, you could probably hear up-to-date, breaking news regarding a raid by the US Air Forces or military troops on diverse parts of the world, one after another; so far the sacrificed victims are Rwanda, Somalia, Afghanistan, Syria and Iraq who experienced the catastrophic situation of their territorial integrity being violated, while the others such as Belarus, Uzbekistan, Zimbabwe, Cuba, Venezuela, China, Russia, North Korea and Iran underwent the worst types of soft-strikes: financial embargo and psychological war.
Perhaps, that was an inseparable division of Bush's foreign policy to cut the mutual ties off with the entire world – except the Western Europe – to meet the ambitions of Israel and accomplish an ideological mission to expand the global Judaism; however the mission – which is not clearly determined that whether is accomplished yet or not - cost a lot for the people of White House and the nation of America, as well.
In the other words, US government dwindled or incised its relations with bunches of countries rashly, under the incumbency of President Bush; countries which he assumed as tiny, terrorist, unimportant or hostile. Meanwhile, he boosted the connections with a confined number of countries including UK, France, Germany and Israel as major allies to continue preserving the tyrannical stance of USA toward the rest of world.
The inimical posture toward the under-developing countries that consist a number of about two third of world population, allowed the White House to hold up any military or financial measure against them whenever its became "necessary", specially about those countries with the majority of Muslims, and that caused intrinsic outrages and hatred against US among the masses of people, beside of incarnating the country as a despotic tyranny in the age of freedom and democracy.
The public objections and irritations surged around Bush and aides when US outlandishly vetoed a UNSC resolution against Israel in November 2006 which had demanded the Jewish state to cease the brutal slaughter of Palestinian women and children in Gaza Stripe and end up to blockade in the critical region.
In the meantime, it imposed three rounds of strict sanctions against Iran to enforce Tehran suspend its enrichment of Uranium and relinquish the nuclear program which has been declared 12 times by the IAEA that there is not proof or evidence for its "deviation".
Although the American media have known that Iran is facing electricity shortage because of its high amount of exports, they conducted a boisterous and grim propaganda against Iran during the past 3 years and particularly intensified their strikes after the election of President Ahmadinejad who was reluctant toward the west and propelled the foreign approach of Iran to China and Russia more than before.
Offensive and insulting language about the people of Iran, using immoral terms for calling the Iranian officials, sticking the label of "terrorist" to the 70 million nation of Iran perpetually, fabricating and distorting facts about the Persian cultural heritage and history, forging news and current event etc. were all the propaganda tactics that intercontinental media corporations used against Iran in an unprecedented alliance with together so as to prevent the emergence of a new superpower in Asia.
Thousands of international competitions, festivals, exhibitions and important events in the fields of sport, culture, politics, economy and science were toke place in Iran in the last 3 years, but neither FoxNews, nor BBC, nor CNN, nor AP, nor NY Times, nor Washington Post, nor EuroNews, nor France Press, nor FT Times, nor LA Times, nor PBS, nor ABC and in one word, none of the mainstream media spoke even a word about them and that showed clearly that how much honest and truthful is their direction about Iran.
However, the major media companies such as News Corporation and Time Warner who always pretend themselves as independent and non-aligned to governments, commenced softening their approach toward Iran and atmosphere around it impalpably right after the victory of President-elect Obama was publicized.
The first step was to moderate the critical commentaries on President Ahmadinejad by praising him for the unprecedented congratulations letter to President-elect Obama on the advent of his victory; meanwhile nobody is able to anticipate the next steps and actions that the "decisive media" would take about Iran, even now that an unpredictable democrat senator is going to undertake the presidency of US.
But actually, it was evident from the first notes and addresses of Sen. Obama that a fundamental change of US policy toward Iran would be underway if he takes office.
Also talking with the American people, you would easily infer that they have not been satisfied with the antagonistic rhetoric of their statesmen about Iran during the last years too, because they believe Iranians are not totally comparable with Afghans, Arabs or other tribes in the region because of a 15,000 years civilization as their rich cultural backbone; maybe Iran was an effective factor that led to the historic triumph of Obama over his rival. Actually McCain was not the person who has been defeated; instead, the scope of republicans' notorious thought was the main reason of their failure.
However, now that the "first black" is going to occupy the oval room of "white house", everybody is waiting to observe an apparent transformation in the US foreign policy which should be free of terror, genocide, mass killings and bullying stance.
Iranians are a major community in US where there are lots of Iranian-American half-blooded citizens country-wide and of course they would be among the main catalysts that enforce the cabinet of President Obama to apply some basic "metamorphosis" in his performance, rhetoric and approach toward Iran.
Now, nobody is excepting to hear the exhaustive news about the renewal of ineffective and ridiculous sanctions, or some threats about a possible attack on Iranian nuclear facilities, which has lost its authority after 5 years of unstopped frequentation.
Honestly, the era of sanctions and armed interventions is expired, specially about Iran which is the world's 8th largest military power itself (According to CIA FactBook 2008) and would not be frightened from some psychological war of words by the American statesmen.
Citizens, media, analysts, peace activists and international observers are currently waiting for a constructive engagement between the two states of Iran and US, particularly after some three rounds of negotiations between the two sides in the level of ambassadors in Iraq which was an indicator of great potentials for both countries to participate and cooperate.
Kourosh Ziabari, is a freelance journalist and writer from Iran, the member of Stony Brook University Publications' editorial team, working with magazines of Canada, Belgium, Netherlands, Poland, UK, India and Egypt.
