Extremism

Been watch­ing a few films at the film fest­ival about Iraq and Iran… one thing that occurred to me is the old feel­ing that we *knew* what the Taliban were doing in Afgh­anistan for *years* before Bush decided to take retri­bu­tion for ⁹⁄₁₁. We knew what Saddam and Uday were doing for *years*. I am glad that these two regimes have been ended. I wish it didn’t have to be through war and I cer­tainly think it ought to be a United Nations exer­cise not a uni­lat­eral Amer­ican exer­cise, but I still think they should have been ended.

So. agwat has posted this story about Iran execut­ing two teen­aged boys because they were gay. The boys were 18 and 17. They were in jail for a year and lashed repeatedly. Then they were hanged. Women can’t go out in the street in Iran without a male escort they are mar­ried to or related to. If they are seen hold­ing the hand of a man they are not related to, they are pun­ished. How much longer will the inter­na­tional com­munity let this stuff go on? Or is Iran too friendly and too hap­pily selling their oil to the right people for the “inter­na­tional com­munity” to notice the human suf­fer­ing that’s going on there?