Squeezing the Zit

Eleven things you didn't know you didn't know about Iran.

1. 70% of the population is under 30. That's 30 years under Iran's first democracy. And a large portion of their childhood spent with their country at war with Iraq. Currently the younger generation's biggest challenge is high unemployment.
   
   
2. 60% of the students attending their universities are women.



3. There are slightly more men than women and the life expectancy is 70 years. The official religion is Shi'a Islam.



4. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the president, isn't actually the head of Iran. That is Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. Ahmadinejad's popularity is declining sharply in Iran, his allies lost local elections and he has been heckled by the population.



5. Look at this map. See the countries and waterways that surround them? The US has bases or fleets in all but one (Turkmenistan). Iran's screwed:
   

   




6. Using the same systems of intelligence that assured US Iraq had WMD's, the capabilities and will to use nuclear weapons, we are now claiming that Iran is threatening us with their nuclear program.



7. The US claims that Iran is in violation of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and, as such, open for attack. The US is also in violation of the treaty.



8. To impair the Shi'a government in Iran, the US is paying terrorists connected to al-Qaeda to attack civilians inside the country.



9. The USS Stennis is in the Gulf of Oman. Named after a man who Reagan called "unwavering advocate of peace through strength," he's also well-known for being not "quite as virulently racist as James Eastland." Oh the irony of attacking Iran with a carrier named after a man who opposed equal rights for people of color.



10. Osama bin Laden is still alive and in hiding, but most people in the intelligence community don't think he's in Iran.



11. Iran does not have nuclear weapons.

I bring you this information because people on the receiving end of the club should not know more than those swinging it.

~Lila Schow

Because Responsible Citizens Clean Up After Their Government http://goodusgov.org/