Radio War Nerd EP #117 — Iran Protests, Politics & the MeK Cult with Nima Shirazi

Great episode! I was hoping you'd collab' w/ N. Shirazi at some point. He does a great job of articulating some of the complexity and nuance that usually gets paved over in discussions of Iran. Indeed, like any country of fairly large size, Iran is a complex society. The multi-ethnic nature of Iran, combined with the intense sense of national pride many there feel, adds to this complexity (as N.S. points out). A few comments though: (1) "marg" literally means "death" in Farsi, not "down with." However, as N.S. says Iranians throw "death to" around pretty loosely i.e. "death to the chair that I just stubbed my toe on!" As such, "marg bar amrika/dictator/etc" should be thought of as political slogans rather than direct threats, as ya'll point out. (2) N.S. mentions the fluid nature of the Iranian borders as evidenced by intermarriages, etc. This is true to an extent but shouldn't be overstated (in my opinion) - I think the best way to understand it would be the U.S.-Mexico border. Yes, there is lots of cultural and economic exchange across the borders, intermarriages, etc. However the borders are also somewhat tense areas (Iraq and Balooch borders especially) and, like the U.S.-Mexico border/relationship there is a range of opinion about such exchange, from pro to anti to neutral to apathetic. Iranians are not uniform in their orientation toward their neighbors e.g. some are bigoted towards Arabs, some are not. Within Iran's borders, even relationships between ethnic groups can occasionally be tense, though the Iranian nationality keeps most people fairly unified on a deep level. In short, Iran is composed of diverse identities and opinions, though the common denominator of an "Iranian" identity (whether imagined or experienced to be Persian/Iranian-Arab/Balooch/Azeri/Kurdish/Lurish/Semnani/etc/etc) is very deeply rooted. This is all basically what N.S. said, I'm just splitting hairs. Just my two cents. Really great interview and would like to see Shirazi back on the War Nerd soon.

You mention a 10-hour MeK work day; are there any descriptions of what that entailed? What the heck is daily life like in that sort of situation?

Mark said there are a lot of good Korean-produced war movies these days. What are some good ones?

Shame about that newsletter, right? Though the Turkish situation was extremely hard to read for everyone, it seems. Anyway, according to what Erdogan is saying now about Afrin having been majority Arab before the war and "restoring" it to its "rightful owners", it would seem that the plan is to actually colonize the area with Sunni, probably pro-rebel Arabs. He should have enough refugees to do it, but it made me wonder about whether what Erdogan offered to Syria and Russia was to move rebel families and supporters from Idlib to Afrin. Rumors of an "Afrin for Idlib" deal, silly on the surface, would then become somewhat more sensible, don't you think?

Can anyone in the RNW community recommend a good book on the 1979 Iran revolution that doesn't just toe the US mainstream line? EDIT: I'd be fine with multiple recommendations

<a href="https://img.washingtonpost.com/wp-apps/imrs.php?src=https://img.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp-content/uploads/sites/21/2018/01/wrongbutton.jpg&w=1484" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">Here's a picture</a> from the Hawaii emergency system (no buttons). Enough to give any UI-designer an ananeurysm. Very easy to imagine someone making a wrong click accidentally here.

Great episode and great latest newsletter. I didn't even know anything about the MEK before I listened but that was a fascinating story! Keep 'em coming please!

I thought I could only dream of a crossover like this