We won, STFU
Posted on 06/13/2009 11:32:45 PM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach
Iran's presidential election was not supposed to be like this - days (and nights) of giddy excitement and political mudslinging and anarchic scenes of a sort that the tightly-controlled Islamic republic has not seen since the revolution.
It was meant to be a formality. The Guardian Council, a body of senior conservative clerics, would select a handful of candidates with impeccable Islamic and revolutionary credentials. The country would go through the motions of democracy to impress the outside world and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad would duly be re-elected, as every other incumbent president has in the republic's 30-year history.
How could the Israel-hating, US-bashing, nuclear weapon-chasing President lose when he was backed by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's Supreme Leader, by the Revolutionary Guard and its volunteer Basij militia, by state-controlled television and a nationwide government machine?
The Guardian Council selected three male candidates - a hardline conservative and two relative moderates - to oppose Mr Ahmadinejad, and rejected 470 others, including 42 women. All three were political insiders: Mir Hossein Mousavi was a former prime minister, Mohsen Rezai a former commander of the Revolutionary Guards and Mehdi Karoubi a former parliamentary Speaker.
Then, suddenly, everything spun out of control. Perhaps it was the unprecedented series of six live television debates in which Mr Ahmadinejad and his rivals let loose, hurling charges of corruption, fraud, cronyism and mendacity at each other. The deep rifts between the radical and moderate conservatives in Iran's political elite had never been exposed in this way before.
Perhaps it was Mr Mousavi's daring decision to let his wife, Zahra Rahnavard, defy precedent by actively campaigning for him, and to appear on campaign posters holding her hand.
(Excerpt) Read more at timesonline.co.uk ...
Yep, I wonder what Jimmy thinks of these events. He admits he was obsessed for the last 444 days of his presidency by the hostage crisis in Iran.
You could even say that our first battles of the war against Islamic extremism happened with the overthrow of the Shah of Iran, and the hostage crisis.
Lovely.....ROFL!
they have to take out Khameni and all the other ranking Mullahs in order to ever have true freedom again .
Axe the mullahs
Iran’s conservatives are left wingers
thanks for the ping.From your link:
The Iranian writer Reza Zarabi says the regime has all but destroyed religion itself. “The name Iran, which used to be equated with such things as luxury, fine wine, and the arts, has become synonymous with terrorism,” he wrote. “When the Islamic Republic government of Iran finally meets its demise, they will have many symbols and slogans as testaments of their rule, yet the most profound will be their genocide of Islam, the black stain that they have put on this faith for many generations to come.”
The Genocide of Islam. Has a nice ring to it...
Yup. Koran-thumping Bolsheviks.
>>>Iran’s democratic genie is out of the bottle
Premature conclusion from insufficient results. It might become true, but not yet. Wishful thinking at this point.
Several years ago the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to a young female Iranian civil rights leader. That was also “proof” of Iranian democratization. I don’t think I’ve heard of her again from the award presentation to today.
>>>The deep rifts between the radical and moderate conservatives in Iran’s political elite had never been exposed in this way before.
But they were all approved hard liners. Factionalism and power struggles behind the scenes are common elements in dictatorships. Sometimes they remain under cover, sometimes they erupt into the public. That too has little to do with democratization.
Assessing the Iranian Election
Perhaps the Big Kahuna has shot himself in the foot.
The Republican Guard supports Homodinejad. The Iranian people are in terrible danger. The US will not help them as it might have under Bush.
They have shown enormous courage, but if they do not have the strength to overcome this, the slaughter that will surely take place will shock the conscience of the world....if there is any conscience left in the world.
They need to hire some good old American PR men.
Why did the clergy panic? Because they saw something much larger than just Mousavi being elected. They saw the beginnings of a wave that would sweep them out of power. This started with Khatami. and it won't stop today just because they declared a fraudulent winner. Mousavi would have been the crowbar with which to pry open the tangled nest of corruption that came into power soon after the 1979 revolution. There is enough pent-up anger in Iran's youth to fuel a complete wipeout of the regime. If the thugs were so utterly ham-fisted in their attempt to usurp power, they surely will commit scores of idiotic errors in the days to come. I cannot imagine Rafsanjani staying quiet for much longer; the theocracy is about to break wide open. Resistance will take many forms, and now will not stop until the mullahs are permanently out of power. Iran is headed for civil war.
What's the question?
Gee, political opposition leaders are in house arrest or worse within 24 hours of an election in Iran. Is this a new, groundbreaking precedent for countries who watch Iran closely and are “EXCITED” about the “democratic” process in IRAN to consider for implementation in their own countries in the future? Gee, lose an election in a democratic country and win a “Go to Jail” card? How PROGRESSIVE and innovative! What a CHANGE!
Could something happen like that in our ‘progressive’ Constitutional Republic? Has the administration criticized the Iranian election yet? The media...
Great post/thread. Thanks to all posters.
No change no hope. Wuzz up, Barry?
Pipes nailed it. The obamination is now on notice.
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