"Today, I would like to engage in a practice that seems to be quite prevalent in U.S. journalism: take the opinion of one person from a certain country and pretend that it is representative of an entire nation. Ok? Ok."
As an American, I'm so glad journalists from other countries including Iran don't do the same when characterizing the US. Otherwise extremist elements might be considered representative of our country. Thank goodness for the fair and balanced reporting we receive around the world and especially in the Islamic Republic of Iran.
(sarcasm)
Niki
Have a look in your email. Riverbend is coming out
Dear Frank- I wish her and her family safe passage and the best of luck.
Dear Don- Uh huh, yep. And I am sure you are fluent in a number of languages, including Persian, and are an avid observor of the Persian language Iranian press.
Niki, I have heard talk of Turkey invading Iraqi Kurdistan before, but to be honest I really don't understand why they would want to do that. Are Turkish Kurds arming themselves for a civil war of independence from Turkey? Could you please explain why you think an invasion is imminent?
Iraqi Kurdistan is the only part of Iraq that is doing really well right now. The people there live in relative safety, they have jobs, and seemingly good prospects for the future. I most certainly hope that Turkey will not invade and destroy the hopes of Kurdish people!
Hi David-
According to turkey, the PKK, a separtist kurdish group listed as a terrorist org by U.S, nato, and the EU, has been been able to increase bombings on Turkish soil because Iraqi kurdistan is giving them safe refuge.
niki,
regarding the response you gave Don (read: "the way you browbeat him and flippantly dismissed his point"): I am fluent in a number of languages, including Persian, and am an avid observor [sic] of the Persian language Iranian press.
Are you implying that the Iranian press adheres to better journalistic practices than the American press? That it is generally more truthful in its reporting regarding the nuances of debate in America?
I am not defending the American press. It has significant shortcomings. I am simply wondering if you think the press in Iran is stronger and healthier than that in the West?
When you imply (and you obviously do so in your comment to Don) that there is better press in a country well-known for its lack of press freedom -- an obviously absurd position -- you end up undermining what could otherwise be legitimate critique of Western news organizations. And you end up looking like a shrieking contrarian, willing to adopt any absurd position just because that position is somehow anti-American.
hi k-
Well, I am not implying a comparison between the Iranian press and the U.S. press. I am taking a dig at people who base their idiotic conclusions about Iran and the Iranian press based on sources that have selected what should be translated into English for their consumption.
Frankly, the Iranian press is more reliable in reporting the nuances of the U.S. system than the U.S. media is in talking about Iran. (I am talking about the mainstream media, of course). That should tell you how clueless the U.S. press is on Iran.
For all of the disgusting limitations on press freedoms, you will find more of a range of views between two major news sources in Iran than you will in the States. You don't have to take my word for it. Compare, for example, the views expressed in the very right wing paper which supports the office of the Supreme leader, Kayhan newspaper, with the paper associated with the Reformist Mehdi Karoubi, Etemad Newspaper. I guarantee you will find a bigger range of opinions between those two than you will between Fox and CNN.
I think both the U.S. and Iranian systems are unreliable and inadequate, which is why I dont use neither the mainstream U.S. or Iranian press as my only source of news.
Anyway, there was no comparison of the two systems implied in my actual post, but the reader to whom you point would know that if he read past the first sentence. I usually ignore his kind of comments, but every once in a while you have to give a nasty response to the kind of people who probably can't point out Iran on an unmarked map but who feel entitled to posting all kinds of theories about what life must be like there.
Thanks for the information Niki. I had not heard anything about the current situation between Turkey and the PPK. I decided to dig a bit deeper and found this NPR report from April 10:
Turkey, Kurds Move Toward All-Out Fighting
After listening to this radio program, it is apparent that Turkey is at least threatening to cross the border into Iraqi Kurdistan. On the other side of the border, Barzani is threatening to mobilize millions of Kurdish fighters against Turkey. I hope this situation can be de-escalated before an all out war begins!
You seem very knowledgable and we share some of the same opinions. I am glad I found your blog. I look forward to learning more from you.
Dear David- Thanks for that link. I'm afraid I'm not very optimistic about the possibilities of a full on confrontation. Turkey also has an upcoming election, so that may introduce some new complications.
Dear PDiehl- Thanks and welcome to the blog.
Agreed Niki,
We should get Arabic, Turkish (I would say Azari) and Kurdish lessons at school - students should at least take two of the three. As you said the Arabic lessons we got are good for nothing - I cannot produce one proper sentence. All those time, energy and paper and printings wasted.
Classic arabic is hard, it's really friggen hard and we never learn it properly. We should have more languages in schools. At least English and one other language Turkish/Arabic/... That's pretty common in Europe, when I was in school in Belgium we had English as a secondary language and Flemish as a third.
But I don't think you could find enough qualified teachers 
I was teaching in Turkey recently. Besides the threat from the PKK, one student told me that there are a minority called the Turkmen who are Turkish people living in northern Iraq among the Kurds. The Turkish government is very concerned that these people might be persecuted by the Kurds, especially if there is a move to establish an independent Kurdistan. Several decades ago the Kurds did massacre some of these people. The Turks try to support their Turkic brothers in other parts of the world. At the school where I taught there were Turkmen from Turkmenistan, Uzbeks, Azeris, and Bosnians all of Turkish ethnicity who had made Istanbul something of a refuge. Even I, who is a black American, was welcomed by Turks who know American history, as a member of the oppressed. In my research on the Iraqi Turkmen, I read that they are the 4th largest minority in Iraq.
HTNOTH.
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