Motley Kamuka

First some history: My friend says Xerxes is called Ḫašayaruša in Iran. We have different names for things. The Persian king sacked Athens and Sparta. Reading about how Rome, including Marc Anthony, had trouble when they tried to conquer Persia and the Parthian empire.  Talking to an Afghanistan immigrant in the park, and he told me the Ayatollah died in 1989, and I said he was still alive. I pull up  Ali Khamenei , and he pulls up  Ruhollah Khomeini . We were both right. Seems like Iran is in a holding pattern waiting for the Israel retaliation for the latest missile attack .  A sort of continuation of the cold war, proxy wars, asymmetrical warfare, Iran meets with Putin .  Hezbollah, Hamas and and maybe Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine–General Command (PFLP-GC) in Syria are all supported by Iran.  This situation is boosting Israeli hardliners ( Foreign Affairs ). Some recent articles: Here is a historical perspective about how the USA h...

I don't like that Iran funds Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Houthis in Yemen. My friend there says the government is about making everyone miserable. Ali Khamenei has been a dictator for 44 years, it's never good when a fundamentalist is in charge, whatever religion. No dancing in public, among other things. You read about Afghanistan banning women singing in public.  It's surprising, I reading Hafaz and he's an amazing poet. It's hard to imagine the same country with so many great poets would have such dolts for rulers. The film industry is amazing, I've watched 4 films recently and really enjoyed them all.  So I'm reading A History of Iran  (2008) by Michael Axworthy, even though there are some hate reviews on Goodreads. Reading Iranians movie reviews on Letterboxd, I think it's a place where people ventilate some of their hate.  First references I looked up from the book: Nasir al-Din al-Tusi (1201 – 1274) was a Persian polymath, arc...

 Not a good sign: I think they knew the attack was coming. Later: Iran launches missiles.  (CNN) NPR Biden told USA military to help shoot down missiles. ABC Video of missals raining down. Bibi met with Trump and decided to delay a ceasefire with Hamas till after November 3rd. Now the war is spreading to Lebanon and Iran. Those two countries were looking for reason to lob some bombs, and they gave it. In the world of asymmetric war, where all the fundamentalist Islam countries take their pot shots at Israel. Iran will say they killed a Hezbollah leader in Iran, so they have a right to strike back. Israel invaded Lebanon to stop the Hezbollah bombs coming from there. Luckily Syria is too poor to send too many missiles.  Both sides keep giving each other reasons to strike back. Everyone thinks their righteous killing people.  So many hostile countries lobing in bombs, you root out when they come inside your country, there's going to be no mercy for Hamas. I get that I...