I fully agree with the people who wanted a choice as to whether to watch this or not. If they feel, for whatever reason, even if they can't articulate it, that it would be wrong or destructive for them to view the video, then they should certainly have the right to decide.

On the other hand, though, I did want to watch it. I had a hunch that this young woman would remind me of many muslim friends that I've made, Persian and otherwise, and that I needed to honor this person. I still feel that way. It is not selfish for any of us to feel that it is wrong to avoid watching it. That is someone's judgment, and we are all allowed that. Nor is it narcissistic to try to empathize with someone who seems to be a decent woman, who died unjustly.

Furthermore, which one of us averted our eyes completely from the television on 9/11? We watched a horrible tragedy, as our countrymen died, jumping out of the twin towers. How on earth would we really have known or cared what had happened that day, without watching that? I mention this not to "make this tragedy about 'us,'" but merely to say that we can't know anything about a tragedy if we close our eyes to the news of it. I fully understand and support people who feel that they don't want to take on any more tragedy. But I did not feel that way, and I felt like honoring this woman, in my own heart. It was important to me, for reasons I can't articulate either.

Those who have spent the last eight years ravenous for a religious war against all one billion muslims in the world should reflect that this young woman might well have died at their hands, if they'd gotten their dear dream of a war between America and Iran. Thank God it didn't happen. We needed to see this woman's face. Rather than identifying Islam with the tiny number of muslim terrorists in the world, why are we not identifying Neda as the true face of Islam? She deserves it. Ms. Anthropia, be ashamed; your bigotry and hatred are satanic.

...is not logical in this case. I know that in the absence of anything substantial, the political opposition will grasp at any straw that's available. I also understand that the extreme right wing is not known for their command of logic.

But the fact is that these are the very same people who have yelled and brayed, for the last several years, that "all muslims belong to an intrinsically violent, murderous religion which is different from our own." In doing so, they ignored the fact that the war hysteria they were so frantic to stoke rendered them exactly as murderous as the terrorist element they criticized, among the mostly peaceful muslim community. They also sneered, quite loudly, at anyone suggesting that exhorting us to violence against all muslims, aside from being impracticable, would lead us to take the lives of many, many innocent people. Libtard weaklings! they said.

Now that the Neda video has surfaced, however, this same extreme right--who, by the way, said many an approving or excusing word about violently suppressing political dissent in this country, as others have mentioned--ignores the fact that such victims among Iranian protesters were the very same people they considered "acceptable collateral damage" (i.e., "who cares if a bunch of ragheads die? Their language sounds like someone coughing up phlegm! Haw haw haw!") only months before, when they were clamoring for war. Believe it or not, some are actually using the Iranian government's violence to stoke violent bigotry anew, presumably in order to excuse the next pogrom we undertake against whatever random muslim population suits us.

The fact that such people dare to try to claim the moral high ground, and to be the defenders of the valiant muslim dissidents, when they were clamoring to slaughter them all only months earlier, does not hold any water with me. Many have mentioned the fact that more bellicose statements on Obama's part would have led to his use as a propaganda tool. Obama is far from perfect, but he is right to assert himself against this hypocrisy. He is addressing this problem correctly.