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Iran: What's Next?
Kevin is still away. He'll be back on Tuesday. I'm filling in until then and will be blogging from the Personal Democracy Forum conference on Monday.
On Sunday, thousands of Iranians protested against the government, gathering at the Goba mosque in Tehran. Mir Hossein Mousvai's wife and presidential candidate Mehdi Karroubi, were part of the demonstration. Mousvai, according to some reports, addressed the crowd via a cellphone. But this rally, smaller than previous demonstrations, will likely not cause the headline writers of The New York Times to reconsider the title on Sunday's dispatch from Iran: "In Tehran, a Mood of Melancholy Descends."
It does seem that the opposition might have lost steam--though we ought to recall that it took the last Iranian revolution two years to take hold and take power. On Sunday, a Tehran filmmaker I've met via email sent me the below dispatch. This person is a Karroubi supporter and wants those of us in the West to realize that not all the opposition Iranians are Mousavi fans. It's a good point, since conventional media coverage often does turn complicated, full-of-nuance situations into binary, easy-to-shorthand episodes. S/he believes the opposition could regain momentum in the days ahead and writes:
It's been said both Mousavi and Karroubi are under house arrest, but every once in a while they are allowed to appear in public. Karroubi stayed in the Goba mosque just half an hour while he joined protesters and walked away with them. I think he couldn't stay more.
Well it's like new wave of demonstrations gonna start in next days, people talk about making a long human chain tomorrow. New faces coming up, just like [cleric] Hadi Ghaffari and some Ayattollahs. There is video and audio file of Ghaffari's speech against Khamenei on the Internet. It's just released today and I think in couple of days the whole country know about it and it may encourage people to go on.
People were waiting for Hashemi Rafsanjani's speech. They counted on him to stand in front of Khamenei. But after two weeks he spoke today and in a very moderate way supported Khamenei. Now it's like the waiting is over and there is no middle path to go.
You know , I think the government also enjoys this situation! I mean if they wanted to steal votes they could do it in a more convincing way. They could simply say Ahmadinejad has 500,000 more votes than Mousavi. They want to make the people angry. Ahmadinejad calls people who voted for other candidates "dust." Khamenei threathens the nation while he could have made a more cautious speech.They attack ordinary people. I don't know what the hell is going on behind the scenes, but pieces of puzzle just don't match.
I think Mousavi was not the man this nation needed, All he talked about before election was that "I have these plans because Khomeini wanted this for this society". It's sad the people who were pissed off at religion suddenly started repeating his religious slogans. People wanted a secular government but since Mousavi came everybody just forgot that aim.
What really upsets me is that we were 13 million voted for Karroubi. We protest the election results. Most of the politician arrested in past days were supporters of Karroubi, but the whole world consider us in the opposition as Mousavi's supporters!
Those of us watching from far away cannot easily suss out what is happening in Iran, and alas, the same applies to the nation's own citizens.
You can follow David Corn's postings and media appearances via Twitter.
This Is A Warning To Fix Corruption In Washington First
Actually David, We The People must fix our own Democracy first, because the failures by all of our elected politicians in both the House and the Senate have resulted in the economic and political disasters we are suffering the consequences of throughout America today with millions of jobs exported along with far too much of the Wealth of America gained by hard work of We The People since WWII, exported by special interests who have ruled Washington politicians for far too long.
Our corrupt and incompetent politicians, who are actually anointed and elected by political parties controlled their special interest owners, have proven beyond all doubt during the last eight years that our most important educational and religious institutions have failed America.
The truth is that if America's Founding Fathers could return and witness what is happening today in Washington today, they would write another Declaration of Independence to free us from special interests who have replaced the Tory Aristocracy of 1776, special interests who are once again destroying our unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness because we are still disposed to suffer a long train of abuses and usurpations that have damned near reduced us once again to absolute despotism during the Cheney-Bush era.
By Example
Anon92107 is spot-on. We (the people) have allowed the US to descend into a mire of corporate government, mediocre media, and an uninformed populous. The 'election' of 2000 was no less a theft of votes than that alleged in Iran. What followed has been a calculated disassembly of what little remains of our representative democracy. Iranian counterparts to Cheney Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Perle, Armitage, Bolton, Yoo, etc. have learned well.
Check the spelling: Mousavi, not Mousvai
Check the spelling: Mousavi, not Mousvai
Iran! What's next? By David Corn
tagged as:- solution
1. The 18,000 Israel registered 'twitters' which went into action less than one hour after poll close, knew exactly what they wanted. They 'twittered' because 'twitter' is 'names' without faces and addresses. For the Masters of Mis/Disinformation 'twitters' can at the least "confuse", "anger" and "goad towards ACTION" at no real cost and without any fear of being caught and questioned. It is also heartless because it sends gullible idiots to the 'guillotine'.
2. Were not these Iranians the same the Israelis have always wanted and still want to 'bomb, bomb and bomb' back to the Stone Age? So, from where all this sympathy for Iranians is coming from.
3. The Zionists, both Christain and Jewish and their allies in the Oil, Gas and Defense Industrial Mafiosis plus the neo-imperialists in America, Europe and Australia, should find out what next to do to get regime change in Iran.
Traditionalists or Progressives: the democratic Iranian Society
If USA really wants to help any progressive Iranian movement, may I suggest that we should stay out of the Iranian internal politics. We Americans hate any nation meddling in our internal affairs. Progressive Iranian population, the last thing they would need is the label of being attached to the Uncle Sam. Bush's meddling in Iran worked against the progressive section of the Iranian society. I have used the term progressive, not moderates. Iranian Traditionalist (religious, very nationalistic, often poor, and under educated) are the majority of the Iranian population. The Progressives are young, better educated and often the middle class segment of the Iranian population. A search in demographics and the statistics of the Iranian population would support my statement.
The Iranian election was about who will control the democratic Iranian society, the Traditionalists or the Progressives. The Progressives, as a minority of the population, lost the election to Ahmadinejad. We will not advance our American interests, or the Prgoressive Iranian movement, by listening to the Republicans who advocate a more aggressive policy toward Iran. Our diplomatic approach to Iran will disarm the members of the Traditionalists and advance the progressive movements.
The change in demographics of Iran toward a larger middle class will shift the internal Iranian policy toward the Progressives. Our past mistakes and political and financial burdens we have placed on the Iranian people will not advance our American interests.
Please read:USA Political Debate: Iran and the Election
http://straveler-myamerica.blogspot.com/2009/06/usa-political-debate-ira...