How different is what Iran is doing with respect to Hezbollah...

[redqueen]

from what the US did with respect to the Contras?

[BillZBubb]

1. What is Iran doing wrt Hezbollah? Any proof?

We know what the US did with the Contras. I haven't seen any hard proof of anything Iran is doing with Hezbollah.

[Taxloss]

2. Iran supplies and fund Hezbollah.

This is hardly in dispute, Hezb was found by Khomeniites.

[BillZBubb]

6. No Israeli propaganda please. Post proof.

[Taxloss]

10. WaPo:

Iran's role differs in each crisis, as do the issues.

The most pressing is the new violence along Israel's borders. Overnight, the confrontation with Hamas mushroomed dramatically into a confrontation that includes Hezbollah, Lebanon, Syria and Iran. Iran is using Hezbollah to improve its own leverage, analysts say.

"The Iranians think they have a regional role," Bakhash said. "If the Israelis are beating up the Palestinians in Gaza, they may feel compelled as supporters of the Palestinian cause to have Hezbollah take a stand at this difficult moment." Hezbollah was founded in 1982 with the funding, arms and training by Iranian Revolutionary Guards dispatched to Lebanon after Israel's invasion.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/12/AR2006071201557.html

[progressivebydesign]

19. and who are these mysterious "analysts say" analysts quoted???

I hate unsourced comments like that. Anaylysts? Whose? US govt? Conservative think tanks? who...??

[Taxloss]

21. Analysts like the two mentioned by name in the article. n/t

[Recursion]

23. Let me bang props to Taxloss for that... /nt

[BillZBubb]

26. You consider that PROOF????? Absurd.

You cite a line from a Washington Post story spouting the "common knowledge" that has been created via Israeli propaganda. It's the same kind of nonsense that stated without doubt that Saddam Hussein had WMDs. After all it was common knowledge.

You have to do better than that.

[Recursion]

4. I don't think there's any dispute...

...that Iran funds, equips, and sends advisors to train Hezbollah. Tehran says that they do it, Iranians are in fact in Lebanon, etc.

[BillZBubb]

8. Sorry, no propaganda here. Post proof.

I have no doubt Iran sends funds to Hezbollah. Hezbollah is a big organization that spends most of its funding on social services. That is hardly like the US and the Contras.

[Recursion]

11. Make up your mind?

I have no doubt Iran sends funds to Hezbollah.

Well, since the issue in question is, "does Iran send funds to Hezbollah?", I'm glad to see we're in agreement.

[BillZBubb]

25. That a lie; you said "funds, equips, and sends advisors"

I said funds only. Get a clue and learn to read.

[redqueen]

9. I thought it was well known... sorry.

I got the idea from seeing some guy on C-Span claim that funding for Hezbollah was a line item in the Iranian budget... which made me think... well at least they're not hiding it... like the GOPranos did when they were in charge in the 80's with the Contras.

I may have been misinformed... I admit I'm not 100% positive about this.

[deaniac21]

16. They don't worry too much about public opinion in Iran.

[redqueen]

17. the information in post 3 seems to indicate otherwise...

:shrug:

[deaniac21]

18. I'm wrong. Iran's government is entirely poll driven.

[redqueen]

20. allllllllrighty then. n/t

[Recursion]

22. I didn't mean to imply that

But to think that the Mullahs are immune to public opinion in Iran is, frankly, naive. People were pissed... and I mean Revolution pissed... that Rasfanjani had bought arms from the Great Satan. That's why he was kicked out of parliament and into a Constitutionally weak Presidancy. We tend to overlook the fact that Ahmadi-Najad is the George W. Bush of Iranian leaders; messianic, a hero to 50.1% of the population and an absurd buffoon to 49.9% of it.

[Recursion]

3. I can think of one

Iran probably isn't breaking any of its own laws in doing it...

(as an aside, it's a little-known fact that the Iran-Contra debacle caused almost as much furor in Iran as it did here; Rafsanjani was effectively silenced as a political voice for nearly two decades, and left as a figurehead President.)

[redqueen]

7. I thought it wasn't a secret that Iran was funding Hezbollah, either...

but it looks like from the first response to this thread I might be mistaken about that.

[arcane1]

5. don't forget that the scandal is called "Iran/Contra"

selling weapons to the supporters of Hezbollah

[Spearman87]

14. I keep seeing the figure $100 Million

given as the estimate of Iran's annual support for Hezbollah. I've seen it in numerous articles; I"m guessing it is somebody's intelligence estimate? I do not interpret that as a bank acccount figure however, but rather a number that factors in the value of weapons and other equipment that are shipped to Lebanon. It seems to be widely believed that Iran traffics equipment to Hezbollah in Lebanon by shipping it through Syria. The other night I heard a journalist on the ground over there say that according the word he was getting from his sources, weapons resupply of Hezbo has been ongoing during the current conflict. That would probably be a reason Israel is interested in keeping a closer eye on the Syrian border.

Lebanon does not have its own military-industrial complex, so far as I know, but the country is certainly the current home of thousands of rockets, missiles and guns under Hezballoh control

[Selatius]

12. There is no difference, frankly

We funded the contras with their bases in several neighboring countries so they could move next door and attack Nicaragua's government, which was elected by the people.

[redqueen]

13. And is that even the only example of our support for "freedom fighters"

The fact that most people keep themselves completeley ignorant about these things is really really disgusting.

[redqueen]

15. One kick for more comments...

:kick:

[Euphen]

24. Hezbollah isn't fighting a civil war, and as far as I know doesn't have

death squads.