Iran's Melli Bank on the 11th Floor ...

Preparing for my upcoming cultural visit to Iran, I needed to go to The Iranian Melli Bank at the London Wall. And, that I did. Inside the Melli Bank, I saw costumed female bank officials dressed in Islamic clothing while the males were unconventionally dressed in Western attire of suit and tie. What struck me most was arriving minutes before the BBC-TV 24 News report live at 14.07 from Washington, D.C. with U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, declaring the "Iranian regime is the most dangerous one in the world." More fresh economic sanctions against Iranian banks were to be imposed to further curtail and severely restrict banking transactions of any kind by such banks in the USA and elsewhere. With US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice at his side, Henry Paulson singled out the Iranian State-owned banks Bank Melli, Bank Mellat and Bank Saderat. Treasury officals say such banks are "supporters of global terrorist groups for their activities in Afghanistan, Iraq and the Middle East. Along with Bank Sepah, which was already under U.S. and UN sanctions, the institutions account for more than 50 percent of Iran's banking sector," noted US news reports.

As I turned from the huge TV flat panel, I saw two bank officials with a smirk on their faces as if to say it was all so 'deja vue' and so what's new America? I had expected a glum look on their faces at least or even an angry look, but there was none. An Iranian male bank official also stood close to me as he, too, was watching the same news report. He didn't blink an eyelid, he didn't. For me it was strange to be seeing such a live news report about Iran as I stood for the first time inside the elegant Melli Bank of pure Persian stock. And knowing I was also heading soon for a once in a lifetime adventure by visiting Iran itself ... Will the Yankees bomb Terhan while I'm there? And, if so what will the Iranians do with foreign visitors like me?

But more sensationally, what will Iran do to retaliate for such a bombing if and when it should take place? I now am of the view that it's no longer a question of "if," but rather a question of "when" will George Bush order such a major strike and attack against the Islamic Republic of Iran? Nuclear weapons or not, I personally oppose any American strike on Iran. The cost will
be catastrophic to America and Iran, especially if Putin's Russia decides to come to the military defence of the Islamic Nation. I believe, too, that George Bush is somehow seeking revenge against Iran after the holding of all those American hostages at the U.S. Embassy after the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Many American have still not forgiven the Iranians for that and I guess Bush being the revengeful type he is is among them. He was then in his 30's when Jimmy Carter lost to Ronald Reagan in 1980 as a result of the hostages still holed-up in Tehran with the Shah
of Iran then dead as a door nail at Washington, D.C. While the Ayatollah Khomeini then reigned supreme at having established the new Republic State of Islamic Iran over the tyranny of the shah. The Shah's Pahlavi Family is still living in America and London some 28 years after the Islamic Revolution in Iran , I am told ...

As for myself, I have no fear if such an American strike occurs while I myself may be inside Iran. Life is to live to its fullest and although I have no desire to die I also have no fear of death ... So to Iran I go not to see and hear Yankee bombs, but rather to see the incredible culture and history of one of the world's oldest nations. The Melli Bank will survive no matter what George Bush may do or say. As Nobel Laureate Doris Lessing remarked the other day, "George Bush is a world calamity." So again I say, watch out Iran ... And all the rest of us ...
The Guardian stated that President Vladimir Putin of Russia criticised the latest Bush sanctions
against Iran by declaring: "It's not the best way to resolve the situation (between the US and Iran) by running around like a madman with a razor blade in his (Bush's) hand." The problem
Vladimir is that George is hellbent against everything and anything to do with Iran and so he'll
act out his own hatred against the rise of Iran as an Islamic powerhouse no matter what others
say to try to stop him ... The only thing that Bush and America understand is when they see the raw military power of another nation against America's own military might. That's why the US doesn't militarily mess with China and Russia. Or threaten to bomb them or to use airstrikes against them because they know that, China and Russia, can do almost as much damage militarily against America than America can do to them. America always picks on weak nations
like Vietnam, Panama, Iraq, Grenada, and Japan, to get its own way ... But, Iran may well prove not to be such an easy piece of cake for Uncle Sam when it finally comes to shove to push or push to shove. Beware America!! Your "might" against Iran may prove to be your biggest undoing and stupid folly ever! Such will make the mess you've made in Iraq look like paradise
after Iran has finished with you ... Mark my words, by george!!

UPDATE:
Another comment for now on what Bush's murderous America might also do to Iran. It could
well do what I call an "Hiroshima/Nagasaki Repeat" on Tehran and wider Iran as the Yankees did so to Japan some 60 or so years ago by their use of the world's first atom bomb and their second bomb three days later that ultimately killed 152,000 people and injured 215,000 people. America now hypocritically talks about some 3,000 dead due to 9/11!! And within months of 9/11 more folkz were gunned down, murdered, and stabbed on the dangerous streets of America than the total number actually killed by the attack on New York's Twin Towers.

Nothing surprises me anymore about the unmitigating propensity of America to wage war and to settle scores against other leaders and nations it doesn't like by its use of calculated violence and savage death ... So again I say, watch out Iran and the rest of us ... the Yankess are on their way to somewhere to kill and to get their own way at the expense of everybody's peace and safety in the world. Read: Timothy Garton Ash's article on Iran in today's The Guardian at
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/story/0,,2202790,00.html
Take care everybody, Monty. +All Saints Day, 2oo7.