By Konrad Kramar

Translated By Bob Skinner

April 29, 2006

Austria - Kurier - Original Article (German)    

Fear of a U.S. Attack Brings Added Meaning to
Graffiti Depicting a Disfigured Statue of Liberty,
Near the former U.S. Embassy Compound in Tehran.

BBC NEWS VIDEO: U.S. Ambassador
to the U.N. John Bolton, After IAEA Report Said
that Iran is in 'Not in Compliance' With Demands
for it to Stop Enriching Uranium, Apr. 28, 00:16:17

In the White House these days they use an odd comparison: Iranian president Ahmadinejad is the second Adolf Hitler. The effort to stop Hitler began too late is the chorus of the hardliners around Bush, Ahmadinejad's plans must be stopped quickly.

Quite apart from such scare propaganda, there are sufficient grounds for Washington and the West to see Iran as a danger, from the financing of Middle East terror groups to its growing and uncontrollable influence in Iraq. In Teheran, Ahmadinejad employs his own odd comparisons: from the Great Satan U.S.A., on whose hands the blood of other nations clings, to the criminal state of Israel, which marches to extinction.

Even setting aside Ahmadinejad's scare propaganda, there are sufficient grounds for reasonable Iranians, and in this civilized nation there are many, who see the U.S. as a threat: in the 1950s, the CIA deposed the democratic government of the country and imposed the police state of the Shah [Operation Ajax ]; and in the 1980s Saddam Hussein, well-armed by the U.S., inflicted a bloodbath on Iran's civilian population.

Mohammed Mossadegh, Toppled
in a CIA-Engineered Coup in 1953.
His Crime: Nationalizing Iran's Oil.

[Mohammed Mossadegh]
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Iraq and Afghanistan, two countries culturally allied to Iran, have been invaded by the United States, whose bombs fall on villages and cities. For decades, American sanctions have burdened the Iranian economy, so that for many Iranians, visiting relatives in the United States is financially impossible.

Most Iranians reject the corrupt reign of the mullahs, but in no way would they want to be rescued by the Americans, whose power they and their parents know only too well. They have every reason to think of the U.S. as the enemy. Every threat from Washington unifies Iranians even more, even with a bigot like Ahmedinejad in office. They don't see the terror that their regime finances elsewhere; for them, the terror of the United States in their land and in their region is far more real.

VIDEO FROM IRAN: AHMADINEJAD DETAILS HIS PLANS FOR JEWS

Iranian News Channel, Iran: Excerpts from a speech delivered by Iranian President Dr. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, wherein he charges that the Europeans murdered the Jews to scare them into fleeing to Israel, April 24, 00:006:14, MEMRI

"Why did you turn Europe in its entirety into a place unsafe for the Jews? Could there possibly be another reason than creating unsafe conditions for the Jews, so they would flee and find shelter in Palestine?"