Looks like some good news coming out of Europe, where the European Parliament has finally branded Hizbollah as a terrorist organization. The EP will now ask the EU whether some form of sanctions against the group should be imposed.

While searching the European Parliament site, I acame across an article about a speech given there yesterday by Iranian Nobel Prize winner Shirin Ebadi.

I've read some of her comments which are pro-freedom and anti-American at the same time which can be understood given the U.S. intervention in her country that brought the Shah to power and all his inherent evils with him.

That being said, it's a shame that she lets her anti-Americanism stand in the way of achieving her desired goal for her country. If she could choose between freedom today with American help or tyranny for the forseeable future, she chooses tyranny.

She stressed that the Iranian people were tired of oppression and violence and that they were striving for reforms by political and cultural means. Ms Ebadi rejected US threats of an attack on Iran and said that democracy cannot by promoted by the force of arms.

Perhaps she would like to explain how Japan, Germany, Italy, Afghanistan, Iraq, and yes, the land that is now Israel would have been democracies without the force of arms. I'm curious as to how long she thinks "striving" or giving speeches to European diplomats will bring about democracy in Iran.

She explained that dictatorships and despotism in Middle East countries made the populations unable or unwilling to resist colonialist and hegemonic powers which target such countries for their oil. She referred to the current situation in Iraq and to the overthrow by the US of Iranian prime minister Mossadeq in the 1950s.

So we're in it for the oil, and somehow replacing Saddam Hussein with a democracy is the same as replacing a prime minister with the Shah. My guess is that when democracy comes to Iran, and it will, that Ms. Ebadi will be hailed by leftists outside her country, yet will have no status in her own country.