OBAMA SPENDING LIKE A DRUNKEN SAILOR ON JUNKETS

COST OF TWO DAY INDIA JAUNT

My guess would be WELL OVER ONE HUNDRED MILLION  DOLLARS - OR MORE when one considers these details:

TO DO WHAT?

Did I not hear something about selling India about $127 million worth of aircraft? Spending $100 million or more to achieve this means you have already spent all or more of the project INCOME let alone any profit.

On a trip to take your wife and kids to see the Taj Mahal?

And visit a Moslem mosque?

And a Brothel? Yes! See itinerary below.  Good grief!

I was questioning who paid for his partisan campaign trips all around America.

It's understandable that Obama wants to be on the other side of the world when results from the mid-term elections are being realized.

But, in a time of hardship for so many Americans, one can only wonder what the extravagance of his November 6th trip to India will cost. Here are a few highlights:

- The President has booked all 570 rooms, banquet rooms, and restaurants at the 5-star Taj Mahal hotel.

- In addition to the Taj Mahal Hotel, 125 rooms at the Taj President, and 80 to 90 rooms at each the Grand Hyatt and Oberoi Hotels have been booked for his additional entourage.

- In addition to Air force one, two jumbo jets and military figher escorts will be usd to ferry his staff.

- 45 cars will be used in his motorcade.

- 40 military fighter aircraft to provide air protection.

- Because the Taj Mahal Hotel is seaside, the U.S. Navy will be patrolling the waters out to 330 km off the coast.

- The administration has booked the entire India National Center for the Performing Arts to meet with business leaders.

- The security detail will be HUGE.

- Michelle is going to meet with 'commercial sex workers'. (Brothels) Why, I don't know. But the additional cost of her security to enter the seediest areas of Mumbai must be quite a bit.

- The distruption of life and traffic in Mumbai will cost the locals plenty.

Read the article from the Economic Times here:

"US President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle will be extremely busy in Mumbai, upon landing on November 6 for a two day India visit. As the world’s most powerful man and his wife zip around the city visiting the 26/11 memorial on Marine Drive, the National Centre for Performing Arts (NCPA), Mani Bhawan and other locations in south Mumbai, the security obviously will be water-tight .

Adding to the Obamas’ busy schedule is Michelle’s likely visit to Kamathipura, where she will meet commercial sex workers on the invitation of an NGO. The highprofile visit is likely to inconvenience the citizens, as there could be a complete clampdown on traffic on some main roads of south Mumbai and sanitisation of buildings flanking them.

The Obamas will stay at the Taj Mahal Hotel, and his itinerary practically means Marine Drive will be shut for vehicular traffic on the day of the President’s visit, while buildings flanking it will be sanitised with security personnel manning them until Obama has left the place. Same would be the case with Obama’s visit to Mani Bhawan and Michelle going to Kamathipura.

An officer with the security establishment said, “Several other arterial roads in south Mumbai will also see restricted traffic movement, with tight security all around. The Obamas are not expected to schedule any engagements in the night due to security reasons.”

Since Obama is expected to arrive in the afternoon on November 6, and will travel by road to the Taj Mahal Hotel, the entire stretch from airport to the hotel will be under heavy security. The officer said, “There will be no vehicular movement on Western Express Highway at that time. Traffic on roads leading up to the highway will also be stopped. All buildings flanking the entire stretch will be sanitised.

However, there is no threat from the snipers as the President will travel in a bullet-proof car with 4.5-inch thick sheets, which are impenetrable for any gun.”

Obama’s personal security staff itself will be huge, and it has already started making its own arrangements in Mumbai. “A team of secret service agents has already arrived, and has surveyed the areas of his stay and the roads and places on his itinerary,” the officer said.

To ensure fool-proof security, the President’s team has booked the entire the Taj Mahal Hotel, including 570 rooms, all banquets and restaurants. Since his security contingent and staff will comprise a huge number, 125 rooms at Taj President have also been booked, apart from 80 to 90 rooms each in Grand Hyatt and The Oberoi hotels. The NCPA, where the President is expected to meet representatives from the business community, has also been entirely booked. The officer said, “Obama’s contingent is huge.

There are two jumbo jets coming along with Air Force One, which will be flanked by security jets. There will be 30 to 40 secret service agents, who will arrive before him. The President’s convoy has 45 cars, including the Lincoln Continental in which the President travels.”

Since Obama will stay in a hotel that is on sea front, elaborate coastal security arrangements have been made by the US Navy in consonance with the Indian Navy and the Coast Guard. “There will be US naval ships, along with Indian vessels , patrolling the sea till about 330-km from the shore. This is to negate the possibility of a missile being fired from a distance,” the officer said.

The President will be accompanied by his chefs, not because he would not like to savour Indian cuisine, but to ensure his food is not spiked.

US President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama are scheduled to land in Mumbai on November 6."

HAT TIP - FreeRepublic contributor  "IbJensen" (Our government is a disease masquerading as its own cure.)

47% OF DEMS WANT A 2012 PRIMARY CHALLENGER AGAINST OBAMA

By ALAN FRAM


WASHINGTON (AP) - Democratic voters are closely divided over whether President Barack Obama should be challenged within the party for a second term in 2012, an Associated Press-Knowledge Networks Poll finds.

That glum assessment carries over into the nation at large, which is similarly divided over whether Obama should be a one-term president.

A real Democratic challenge to Obama seems unlikely at this stage and his re-election bid is a long way off. But the findings underscore how disenchanted his party has grown heading into the congressional elections Tuesday.

The AP-KN poll has tracked a group of people and their views since the beginning of the 2008 presidential campaign. Among all 2008 voters, 51 percent say he deserves to be defeated in November 2012 while 47 percent support his re-election _ essentially a tie.

Among Democrats, 47 percent say Obama should be challenged for the 2012 nomination and 51 percent say he should not be opposed. Those favoring a contest include most who backed Hillary Rodham Clinton's unsuccessful faceoff against Obama for the 2008 nomination. The poll did not ask if Democrats would support particular challengers.

Political operatives and polling experts caution that Obama's poll standings say more about people's frustrations today with the economy and other conditions than they do about his re-election prospects. With the next presidential election two years away _ an eon in politics _ the public's view of Obama could easily improve if the economy revives or if he outmaneuvers Republicans on Capitol Hill or in the presidential campaign.

"Democrats currently disappointed with Obama will likely be less disappointed if he spends the next two years fighting a GOP Congress" should Republicans do well on Election Day, said Charles Franklin, a University of Wisconsin political science professor and polling analyst.

Even so, the poll illustrates how Obama's reputation has frayed since 2008. It suggests lingering bad feelings from Democrats' bitter primary fight, when he and Clinton _ now his secretary of state _ roughly split the popular vote. Political professionals of both parties said the findings are a warning for the president, whose formal re-election effort is expected to begin stirring next year.

"It's an indicator of things he needs to address between now and then," said Kiki McLean, a Democratic strategist who worked in Clinton's 2008 campaign.

The White House declined comment on the results.

Alan note: something that could knock Obama down, maybe out,  has started to brew in South Carolina. Watch the news.

ILLEGAL ACTIVITY BY PRO-OBAMA UNIONS UNDER WAY

AND OTHER ITEMS........

PERSONAL RECORDS (HOW ABOUT OBAMA'S?)

Right? I mean, all we now have to do is to run to this Judge in Alaska and point out that if Joe Miller's confidential personnel file from a prior employer needs to be made public because running for Senate is so important, certainly we are entitled to more information about Obama than he tells us in his books, right? From the Anchorage Daily News, Judge orders Miller documents released: In an unusual weekend hearing, retired Superior Court Judge Winston Burbank ruled that the public's right to know about candidates outweighed Miller's right to privacy.

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Mr. Andy Martin, JD, will be holding a “Third National Conference on Barack Obama’s Missing Birth Certificate, College Records and Religion” in Honolulu on November 9-16, 2010. ...On October 17, 2008, Mr. Martin filed a lawsuit in Hawaii to obtain access to Barack Obama’s original long-form, typewritten birth certificate. He has stated that Hawaii officials admitted that the online COLB which has been presented as a “birth certificate” by Factcheck.org and Politifact.com is not the same as “the original” which the Department of Health has on file....Mr. Martin has filed a second lawsuit against Hawaii Governor Linda Lingle

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Another election related lawsuit states that three vans of Hughes High school students were taken to the polls to vote last week during school hours. They were given sample ballots only for Democratic candidates and then taken for ice cream. The suit goes on to allege that the students were chaperoned by campaign workers for U.S. Rep. Steve Driehaus, D-West Price Hill. Brinkman is demanding a restraining order from Common Pleas Court Judge Beth Myers.
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THIS IS WHY YOU NEED TO LOAD UP YOUR CAR LIKE WHEN YOU WHERE IN SCHOOL AND TAKE ALL YOUR CONSERVATIVE FRIENDS TO THE POLLS...We need to turn out in mass numbers to counter the corruption

Do you remember when Barack Obama said “The SEIU Agenda Is My Agenda”? Now we know why.

The same SEIU offshoot group that is accused of turning in thousands of bogus voter registrations in Arizona has come under fire in Colorado. Mi Familia Vota is accused of turning in 6,000 bogus voter registrations in Colorado. The Denver Post reported:

A federal judge declined to force the secretary of state to reactivate approximately 6,000 new voters whose registrations were canceled under Colorado’s 20-day rule.

In a decision issued Monday, Senior U.S. District Judge John L. Kane denied a motion for a preliminary injunction that was requested by several labor and voting-rights groups.

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LEFT WING INTOLERANCE OF FREE SPEECH

A stagehand working on the stage set up for President Obama's appearance in Los Angeles was told to go home when he refused to remove his hat and shirt honoring the aircraft carrier named USS George H. W. Bush. His son is in the US Navy and serves on the ship.

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"The Post & Email has been requesting Certificates of Nomination from the Hawaii Elections Office since July but has been denied access, even though the documents in question have been in the public domain for many months and have been reported on extensively by other researchers and bloggers. We previously reported that our requests to both the Department of Health and the Elections Office and those of many other citizens have been stonewalled, denied, ignored, or responded to by an attempt to bill the other party for an item that was never produced."

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A few weeks ago, I referred to President Obama as a “dhimmi president,” a subservient kowtower to Islamic power. Maybe it’s time to rethink that designation. He’s not a dhimmi. He’s a spineless, supine, surrendering subject of submission – in other words, a dhimmi-plus.

How else to explain Obama’s complacency with regard to a crescent-shaped monument (which Alec Rawls advances in “Crescent of Betrayal: Dishonoring the Heroes” his claim that the memorial is in fact the world’s largest open-air mosque), being built on National Park Service federal land at the Shanksville, PA Flight 93 crash site, while at the same time ignoring the desecration, theft and need to replace the Mojave Desert War Memorial Cross (our nation’s sole WWI federal memorial) also on National Park Service federal land? And how else to explain Obama’s stumping on behalf of the Ground Zero mosque while at the same time ignoring multiple written requests from veterans’ organizations and a host of distinguished American citizens including Speaker Newt Gingrich, Senator Rick Santorum, a few Medal of Honor recipients, Major Generals, Vice Admirals and many other esteemed citizens, asking that he restore the Memorial Cross?

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POLITICAL CORRECTNESS GONE AMUCK!

A civil rights complaint has been filed against a woman in Grand Rapids, Mich., who posted an advertisement at her church last July seeking a Christian roommate. The ad "expresses an illegal preference for a Christian roommate, thus excluding people of other faiths,” according to the complaint filed by the Fair Housing Center of West Michigan. "It's a violation to make, print or publish a discriminatory statement," Executive Director Nancy Haynes told Fox News. "There are no exemptions to that." Haynes said the unnamed 31-year-old woman’s case was turned over to the Michigan Department of Civil Rights.

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800 HOTEL ROOMS, TWO EXTRA 747 AIRCRAFT AND A HUGE RETINUE FOR HIM AND HIS WIFE - ON A TWO DAY VISIT! MORE COLLOSAL SPENDING OF OUR MONEY ON THEIR PLEASURE TRIPS TO A TEMPLE AND A LOCAL SEX PLEASURE PROVIDING LOCATION (BROTHEL?).

"Adding to the Obamas’ busy schedule is Michelle’s likely visit to Kamathipura, where she will meet commercial sex workers on the invitation of an NGO".


As the world’s most powerful man and his wife zip around the city visiting the 26/11 memorial on Marine Drive, the National Centre for Performing Arts (NCPA), Mani Bhawan and other locations in south Mumbai, the security obviously will be water-tight .



Frantic preparations are underway for US president Barack Obama’s visit to Mumbai. Sources in the security establishment said 547 rooms and all banquet halls at the Taj Mahal hotel near the Gateway of India are likely to be booked for the president’s visit. Apart from this, 125 rooms at the Taj President in Cuffe Parade and 80-90 rooms in ITC Grand Hyatt will be booked for Obama’s entourage.

The US president is expected to arrive in the city on the afternoon of November 6 and is likely to leave the next day in the evening. “Michelle, Obama’s wife, is expected to visit an NGO in Kamathipura on the second day. We have to chalk out security plans for her visit since the area is densely populated,” a source from the security establishment said.

“Rooms at the Hyatt are for the air crew and other members who will accompany Obama. The US president will also bring his chef along,” he said.

“Three theatres at the NCPA have also been booked as Obama is expected to visit the place. He will also go to the Police Gymkhana, which has a memorial for policemen killed in the 26/11 terror attack.”

An officer told DNA that Obama would travel to the hotel from the airport via road instead of a chopper. He travels in a Lincoln Continental, which has a thickness of four-and-a-half inches of metal. “Two jets and 45 cars will be part of Obama’s convoy. The jets will be armed with highly-advanced communication and security system,” he said.

Advance Security Liaison officers have conducted a recce of the places Obama is likely to visit. They will conduct another recee and submit a report to their bosses.

WHITE HOUSE INSIDER - LAZY PRESIDENT IS LOSING IT!

Published by Ulsterman on September 7, 2010 in Opinions [WSJ]

A longtime Washington D.C. insider, and former advisor to the Obama election campaign and transition team, speaks out on an administration in crisis, and a president increasingly withdrawn from the job of President.

2008 gave America an incredibly charismatic candidate for President of the United States. Speech after speech showed a candidate with increasing momentum as primary race after primary race concluded. And then came the nomination, more speeches, culminating in an election night victory.

According to the person sitting across from me, those were incredibly exciting times, even for one who had been a participant with three previous presidential hopefuls. Barack Obama appeared to move from one city to the next effortlessly, gaining confidence and motivation with each campaign stop. He was remarkable to watch . He took the script, elevated it with his oration, left the crowds screaming for more, and then would do it all over again, time after time after time. On the campaign trail, Obama is a machine.

When I asked this insider if the media gave candidate Obama an assist throughout his campaign, it elicits a sly smile.

Sure – we definitely had people in the media on our side. Absolutely. We went so far as to give them specific ideas for coverage. The ones who took that advice from the campaign were granted better access, and Obama was the biggest story in 2008, so yeah, that gave us a lot of leverage.

Could Obama have succeeded without the media’s help?

Yeah, I think so. As I said, on the campaign trail he is very-very good. The opposition didn’t have near the energy, or the celebrity attraction that Obama brings. Plus, the country was burned out after eight years of Bush. We knew that going in. We knew that if we won the Democrat nomination, we were likely going to cruise our way to the White House – and that is exactly what we did.”

But after Obama was sworn in, things began to change?

Almost immediately. Obama loved to campaign. He clearly didn’t like the work of being President though, and that attitude was felt by the entire White House staff within weeks after the inauguration.

Obama the tireless, hard working candidate became a very tepid personality to us. And the few news stories that did come out against him were the only things he seemed to care about. He absolutely obsesses over Fox News. For being so successful, Barack Obama is incredibly thin-skinned. He takes everything very personally.

And you state he despises Joe Biden?

Oh yeah. That is very well known in the White House. Obama chose Biden for one reason – to have an older white guy with some international policy credentials. Period.

If Biden has all of this international experience that Obama found so valuable, why has he buried him under the pile of crap that became the stimulus bill? What does Joe Biden know about budgets and economics ? Not much – but Obama didn’t care.

Give Joe a job and get him the hell out of my hair – that pretty much sums up the president’s feelings toward Joe Biden.

What about Hillary Clinton?

Obama is scared to death of Hillary. He doesn’t trust her – obsesses over her almost as much as he does Fox News. He respects her though, which might be why he fears her so much as well.

He talks the game, but when it comes down to it, she has played the game on a far tougher level than he has, and Obama knows that.


How about Bill Clinton?

I never heard Obama say anything about Bill Clinton personally, though I was told he has cracked a few jokes about the former president since getting into the White House. I have heard that Bill Clinton does not like Barack Obama.

That really started when Obama played the race card against him during the primary campaign. Apparently Clinton was apoplectic over that and still hasn’t gotten over it. If there is one thing I have learned in this town – don’t make an enemy of Bill Clinton.

So if Obama doesn’t appear interested in the job of president, what does he do day after day?

Well, he takes his meetings just like any other president would, though even then, he seems to lack a certain focus and on a few occasions, actually leaves with the directive that be given a summary of the meeting at a later date.

I hear he plays a lot of golf, and watches a lot of television – ESPN mainly. I

’ll tell you this – if you want to see President Obama get excited about a conversation, turn it to sports.

That gets him interested. You start talking about Congress, or some policy, and he just kinda turns off. It’s really very strange. I mean, we were all led to believe that this guy was some kind of intellectual giant, right? Ivy League and all that. Well, that is not what I saw. Barack Obama doesn’t have a whole lot of intellectual curiosity.

When he is off script, he is what I call a real “slow talker”. Lots of ummms, and lots of time in between answers where you can almost see the little wheel in his head turning very slowly. I am not going to say the president is a dumb man, because he is not, but yeah, there was a definite letdown when you actually hear him talking without the script.

That sounds like you are calling Obama stupid to me.

No – I am not going to call him stupid. He just doesn’t strike me as particularly smart. Bill Clinton is a smart guy – he would run intellectual circles around Barack Obama. And Bill Clinton loved the politics of being president. Obama seems to think he shouldn’t have to be bothered, which has created a considerable amount of conflict among his staff.

So how bad are things at the White House these days?

I don’t know about right now, because I have not been there in over a month. But I still hear things, and I know what it was like when I left. It’s not good.

As bad as it might look to voters based on what they do know, it’s much worse.

 The infighting is off the charts. You got a Chief of Staff who despises cabinet members, advisors who despise the Chief of Staff, a President and First Lady having their own issues…

Come again – what about the First Lady?

(The insider takes a deep breath) Ok, look, just like any other marriage, folks have issues. The Obamas are no different, except of course they are very high profile. I was told they were having issues before the campaign, and they have even more issues now. Maybe that is why Obama seems so detached – not so much the stress of the White House, but the stress of personal issues. I can certainly relate to that kind of situation.

Care to clarify some more on the Obama marriage?
No. That is all I will say about that. Don’t ask again.

Ok, back to President Obama then. In just a few words, how would you describe him these days?

Like I said, it’s been a while since I was last at the White House, but I don’t have a problem saying that the president is losing it. I don’t mean he is like losing his mind. I mean to say that he is losing whatever spark he had during the campaign.

When you take away the crowds, Obama gets noticeably smaller. He shrinks up inside of himself. He just doesn’t seem to have the confidence to do the job of President, and it’s getting worse and worse.

Case in point – just a few days before I left, I saw first hand the President of the United States yelling at a member of his staff. He was yelling like a spoiled child. And then he pouted for several moments after.

I wish I was kidding, or exaggerating, but I am not. The President of the United States threw a temper tantrum. The jobs reports are always setting him off, and he is getting increasingly conspiratorial over the unemployment numbers. I never heard it myself, but was told that Obama thinks the banking system is out to get him now. That they and the big industries are making him pay for trying to regulate them more. That is the frame of mind the President is in these days. And you know what? Maybe he is right, who knows?

Will Obama run again in 2012?

I don’t know. That subject was never brought up again after 2008, at least not around me. If he does, I think it would have more to do with allowing him another year and a half of campaigning again.

He just loves it so much. He really needs the crowds, the cheering, the support of the people. (Alan note: narcissist moron?)



Can he win in 2012?

Oh – absolutely. Who else campaigns as well as Barack Obama? Nobody. What politician is more loved and supported by the media? Nobody. I don’t see the Republicans offering up a candidate as powerful as Obama.

I mean Sarah Palin? Really? Obama would defeat her by a 20 point landslide!

Romney? The Republicans will enjoy these midterm elections, but 2012 is Obama’s year if he chooses to run again.

As a president, Obama has many flaws, but as a candidate, he is near flawless.


But would another four years of an Obama presidency be the best thing for America?

(Long pause) Now that is a much more interesting question right there, and a question I think more and more Democrat Party insiders are asking themselves these days, myself included.

I am going to come right out and say it – No. Obama is not up to the job of being president. He simply doesn’t seem to care about the work involved.

You want to know what? Obama is lazy. He really is. And it is getting worse and worse.

Would another four years of Obama be the best thing for America? No it would not.

What this country needs is a president who is focused on the job more than on themselves. Obama is not that individual. I actually hope he doesn’t run again. Looking back, as much fun as the campaign in 2008 was, Hillary Clinton should have been the nominee. Hillary was ready to be president. Obama was not ready.

He had never lost a campaign. Everything was handed to him. He doesn’t really understand the idea of work – real, hard, get your heart and soul into it work. And frankly, that is very disappointing to a whole lot of us…


'Political Correctness is a doctrine, fostered by a delusional,
illogical minority, and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream
media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible
to pick up a turd by the clean end.’
AG

HIS IMPERIAL HIGHNESS PRINCE REZA PAHLAVI RECENT MINDSETS

When he turned 21, Reza Cyrus Pahlavi publicly declared himself Shahanshah (King of Kings). He became Reza Pahlavi II and formally staked his claim to the Peacock Throne, after the death of his father, the exiled Shah of Iran.


Now, 29 years later, the tall, dark and silver-haired resident of Potomac, Va., on the suburban outskirts of Washington, simply signs himself "Mister."

His office's press releases refer to him as "the former Crown Prince of Iran," but his staff privately persists in referring to him as "His Majesty."

At 50, Mr. Pahlavi dismisses talk of restoring the monarchy in Iran and says his life is now dedicated to creating a non-violent, democratic revolution there.

"The choice of future government should be left to the Iranian people to decide in a free election," he says. "What form it ultimately takes is up to them. The essential point to me is that there is no way we can achieve our aspirations as a nation unless we have a secular regime, as opposed to this theocracy."

"Without a clear separation of the state and religion you cannot have the beginning of any form of democratic system," he adds.


Mr. Pahlavi was 17 the last time revolution swept over Iran. He was studying to be a fighter pilot at a U.S. Air Force base in Lubbock, Tex., when his father, sick with cancer, fled and surrendered Iran to Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the Islamic fundamentalist leader.


"Whatever happened in 1979, today people see the net results," he says. "Where the country was going; where are we now. Whatever analysis is made of Iran — positive, negative, good or bad — it is something for history to decide and for Iranians to draw their conclusions."


"Are we better off today than we were 30 years ago?" he asks.


"We know the country, its potential, its resources, where it was and where it could have been. We should be at the level of a Taiwan or a South Korea today, not ranked 150th in the world, even though we are an oil-producing country...


"We should not have our Iranian rap artists say the regime is promising us yellow cake when we don't even have bread to eat."


His disdain for Iran's current rulers is evident, but the anger is touched by the pain and longing of separation and the loneliness of 33 years of exile.


"I don't doubt ever that this regime will end," he says. "There is no question about that. The question is when and at what cost and how can we help expedite the process to reduce the toll and the cost to our nation."


In the years immediately after the 1979 revolution, Mr. Pahlavi promoted the case of monarchy and kept his claim to the Peacock Throne alive through books, a website and personal appearances.


Now, he says he promotes nothing more than what he calls the common denominator of Iranian politics: demands for a secular democratic state that observes and protects human rights.


"Every circumstance around the world has its own time in history," he says, shoving any further discussion of monarchy into the background.


"Those who have been able to move on and adjust to today's reality will not render the best service to the cause by rekindling issues that are no longer relevant to today's predicament."


Iran's future, he insists, will be determined by a massive generation of young people who have all been born since the 1979 revolution.


Exiles like himself can only offer them assistance and advice in trying to overthrow a repressive theocracy.


"I don't want anything in return," he says. "I do it because it is my duty."


While he urges foreign governments to come to the aid of Iran's fledgling internal opposition movements, he insists regime change must be internally induced to be legitimate.


He also warns the West not to harm Iranian society while trying to destabilize the Iranian government.


"Sanctions in themselves can not be enough," he says. "Because if you weaken society, while you weaken the regime, it has less means to really combat [the government]. If [the opposition] is reinforced and reinvigorated, then the whole dynamics of the situation is changed."


Mr. Pahlavi rejects all talk of outside military intervention or a preemptive strike against Iran's nuclear programs. Such moves would alienate potential democratic allies within its government and could jeopardize the lives of thousands of innocent people.


"What I am saying to heads of state and decision-makers around the world is that it would be historically criminal for you not to let the Iranian people stand for themselves and give them their day in court before you adopt much more dire measures," he says.


"We need to draw lessons from the past," adds the man who once stood to inherit a kingdom. "We all do."


"Sometimes people ask me who are the future leaders of Iran," he says.


"I say I don't know who they are, but I know that they exist by the thousands. They are the artists and engineers; they are poets and businessmen; they are entrepreneurs and they are there — waiting to inherit this future.


"And it is, by God, our obligation, our duty to the nation, to help them the best way possible to minimize the toll and the cost of change."

pgoodspeed@nationalpost.com
.

Read more: http://www.nationalpost.com/todays-paper/duty/3577579/story.html#ixzz11LtViYSE