World View: Iran Officials Order Removal of Anti-American Posters in Tehran

This morning’s key headlines from GenerationalDynamics.com

• Iran officials order removal of anti-American posters in Tehran
• Sectarian bombings kill 62 across Iraq on Sunday
• Volgograd Russia suicide bombing raises question about Sochi Olympics

Iran officials order removal of anti-American posters in Tehran

Billboard poster in Tehran. It depicts U.S. and Iranian negotiators sitting at a table, but under the table the American is wearing khakis and combat boots, pointing a gun at the Iranian. The caption questions American honesty. (khanetarrahan.ir)

Iranian officials have ordered the removal of unauthorizedanti-American posters. The posters referred to the proposednegotiations between Americans and Iranians, and graphically impliedthat Americans would be dishonest. The implication is that the realAmerican goal in the negotiations is to attack Iran militarily.

This very public dispute is the latest event in the political conflictbetween the two sides in Iran’s generational Awakening era “generationgap.” In 2009, we saw large demonstrations of young people protestingthe reelection of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for president. Those protestswere crushed by force.

But what we’ve seen this week were protests by groups representing theolder generation, the survivors of the Great Islamic Revolution of1979. The posters were public protests by this group wanting tomaintain the “Death to America” culture that’s pervaded Iran since1979.

During America’s last generational Awakening era, in the 1960s, therewere massive protests by young people, and those are what’s rememberedtoday. However, it’s rare to recall the occasional protests bypolitical conservatives, especially during the 1964 presidential bidof Barry Goldwater.

The hardline Tehran poster protesters are not finished yet. OnNovember 4, the 24th anniversary of the storming of the Americanembassy in Tehran, the “Death to America Committee” will lead a hugerally at the embassy building:

“The crimes of U.S. leaders and international Zionismin dealing with Iran’s great nation will never be erased frompublic memories and minds.”

Large crowds are expected to be present, chanting “Death to America!”khanetarrahan.ir and Reuters and Fox News

Sectarian bombings kill 62 across Iraq on Sunday

A coordinated series of car bombings across Baghdad, as well as asuicide assault in a northern city, killed at least 62 people in Shianeighborhoods across Iraq on Sunday. Although no one has yet claimedcredit, it’s assumed that the new attacks were perpetrated by theal-Qaeda linked Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). The sectarianviolence in Iraq has increased each month since the withdrawal ofAmerican troops in December 2011. AP

Volgograd Russia suicide bombing raises question about Sochi Olympics

Suicide bombings in Russia usually occur in the North Caucasus,Russia’s southern provinces. where tensions have been especially sincethe war between Russia and Chechnya in the 1990s. But on October 21,a female suicide bomber blue herself up on a passenger bus in the cityof Volgograd, from the Caucasus. It’s thought that the terroristswere sending a message that they could strike anywhere in Russia, andthe security forces couldn’t stop them.

What Russian officials fear the most is an attack in Sochi, on thewest end of the Caucasus, where the Winter Olympics will be held inFebruary of next year. Militant groups have been threatening todisrupt the Olympics with terrorist attacks. Russian security forceshave locked down the region around Sochi so tightly that it’s possiblethat the attack was moved to Volgograd because an attack on Sochi wasnot possible.

Since the start of the second Russia-Chechnya war in 1999, there arebeen 78 suicide terrorist attacks on Russian territory by 121 suicidebombers, of whom 52 have been females. Female suicide bombers areoften called “black widows,” because it’s assumed that they avengingthe deaths of their husbands in the Chechnya war. However, theVolgograd bomber was the wife of Dmitry Sokolov, who is very muchalive. He’s 22 years old, and was born in Moscow. In 2011, he lefthome, converted to Islam, and joined the militants in Dagestan in theNorth Caucasus. The suicide bomber herself was born in Dagestan. Shemarried Sokolov, after which she immersed herself in Islam, andstarted wearing the hijab (head scarf). Jamestown

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