A photograph of wrestlers Jordan Burroughs and Sadegh Goudarzi is being hailed as the single image to encompass the spirit of the Olympics. Jack Moore of Buzzfeed first posted the image of Burroughs, an American, and Goudarzi, an Iranian, hugging after the New Jersey native beat his Middle Eastern competitor for first place [in freestyle wrestling].Text from Huffington Post. Captioned photo via America Wakie Wakie.
Nice thought, but very false.
ReplyDeleteWAR IS A RACKET- Major General Smedley Butler- USMC
ReplyDeletehttp://www.rationalrevolution.net/war/major_general_smedley_butler_usm.htm
It's so true. If you travel to Iran (which I have, I spent a month there in 2007), you will see how friendly, curious, and welcoming and the people are toward Americans. Meanwhile the media only projects angry statements made by government officials who disagree with Western policies, etc. There is so much more to this country than that. I love this photo for showing a glimpse of that.
ReplyDeleteIn the case of Iran, I agree, the people are generally decent, but government is run by nutbars. However in many countries people push for war, for many different reasons, resources, water, historical wrongs, land, etc. Blaming it just on governments is simplistic. Also if you think war is always profitable, just ask the UK at the end of WWII, it won but was completely drained. To get steel to build stuff, you had to export over 70% of your production, hence the Landrover.
ReplyDeleteIt is very clear that the iranian government wants no war, their menaces are mere rhetoric to keep people obedient. It would be completely anihilated in the very moment they fire the first missile against any other state, including Israel (the missile wouldn't probably even reach the country, since the U.S. gave Israel an anti-missile system). Iran has been carefully flanked by american troops and airports in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Emirates and Saudi Arabia, by the U.S. 5th Fleet in Bahrain, it has no chance. According to Robert Gates' report to the U.S. Congress in 2009, every effort that is made by the iranian armed forces now is thought to hold a possible invasion and force the invasor to negotiate. The U. S. government is just waiting for an excuse to invade, like they did to the two neighbors in 2001 and 2003, thus dominating the middle east political arena completely. Ahmadinejad is not crazy, he is just a thug trying to hold on a falling empire.
ReplyDeleteThis is something I've always thought. It's not the people of a country that wants war, it's the govenment heads.
ReplyDeleteNice idea, but yeah, it's false. There are people out there who hate your way of life, and want to bomb you for it.
ReplyDeleteWho hates my way of life and wants to bomb me?
Delete"There are people out there who hate your way of life, and want to bomb you for it".
DeleteYeah - people like George Bush Sr & Jr, Ronald Reagan and now Barack Obama.
You, Sir, are a media-parroting nincompoop who probably believes that "they hate us for our freedoms" idiocy propounded by whack-job right wingers. If "they" truly do hate us, it's probably because we won't keep our nose out of their affairs or our military out of their countries.
Regardless of "who wants war and why" (which, personally, I 'blame' on sections of various governments and populations-- *not* homogenous!), this is an awesome picture, exemplifying good sportsmanship, brotherhood (of various sorts), and overcoming cultural barriers. This picture made me smile, simple as that. After all, I've witnessed (much) poorer conduct during school football matches! It's nice to see that Olympians remember humanity and sportsmanship, the 'best of the best' upholding morality. (yes, sportsmanship is a moral code :P )
ReplyDelete