Do you still think Iran's government is a legitimate democracy?
Please consider a hypothetical analogy of the IRI constitutional power setup in American terms*...
This analogy is based on the notes on Iranian Government Structure at
http://www.netiran.com/.
Suppose that, according to the US Constitution, every potential candidate for President, the Senate or the House of Representatives had to receive the approval of a 12 man committee appointed by the ACLU before he could actually run for office.
Suppose that any legislation coming out of the Congress had to be ratified by an ACLU committee before it could become law and that this committee indeed had total veto authority.
Suppose that the ACLU had the constitutional authority to dismiss the President and/or the Congress if he saw fit.
Suppose that the heads of all armed services, police forces, broadcast media and the Supreme Court were appointed directly by the ACLU.
Suppose that ACLU, not the President, was the Commander in Chief of the armed forces.
Now suppose that the next ACLU-approved Republican Presidential candidate ran on a platform calling for greater religious freedom.
How much would you trust him to keep his campaign promises?
* This analogy was adapted from:
http://www.pcpages.com/ani/pages/gov/analogy.htm
Excellent, DoctorZin. I like the change you made, too. :)
Iran is ruled by a fascist junta.