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I am married to a woman from Iran, and in December of '06 I traveled with her for her first visit in 30 years for a family reunion. She and her 4 living siblings had not been been together for 30 years.

I found the Iranian people to be very warm and welcoming even an official at the airport who couldn't find my visa number in his computer and let me in after he knew that I was married to a "beautiful Persian woman". He at first wanted to deport on the next plane out.

Everywhere I went I was greeted warmly by the Iranians with phrases like "Welcome to Iran" and "Welcome to my country".

My brother-in-law who still lives in Tehran refers to Ahmadinejad as the "little monkey". The people of Iran don't respect him because he promised a better economic life for the people, but instead it has gotten worse.

They would like to see him gone, but not at the point of gun or bomb. My wife's uncle who is a university professor in Tehran told me "Why shouldn't Iran have the bomb, Israel does."

Finally, I think that Iran's testing of the missiles and it's seeking of nuclear power is what it learned from Norht Korea. They see what Kim Il-jueng did and what he has gotten from the US and Iran will try and do the same and who can blame them.

posted 4 years, 10 months ago
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