So, what is going to happen in Iran? Will the sham election stand? Will world pressure and the inflamed youth population bulk force a new and closely-monitored re-vote?
HAHAHAHAHA!
Excuse me.
HAHAHAHAHA!
History and 200,000 Revolutionary Guards tell me, NAH. There is NO WAY Ahmadinejad is going to allow that. And we (we being America, not me and the dog or anything) aren’t going to intervene either, and should not. The last thing we need is to meddle in another country that we don’t understand and perhaps cannot understand, and where the slogan “Death To America!” is probably used to sell orange juice on state-run TV. Should President Obama speak out? Of course he should, and has. But he could pound his fist on his podium and throw his shoe and rip his shirt open with fury, and it wouldn’t make a damn bit of difference.
Something Western journalists are not really bringing up with much emphasis is that Ahmadinejad’s political rival, Mir Hossein Moussavi, is not Ghandi or Churchill or even Marion Berry. He’s not Mr. Western Democracy by any means. He’s a “Death To Israel” kind of guy, agrees with Ahmadinejad that the Holocaust never happened, thought Iran’s 1979 taking of American hostages was justified, is pro-Iran-nukes, and was part of a government that thought a good way to handle protestors was to murder them.
Oops.
So why did, apparently, so many Iranians vote for him and are so passionate about what has happened? Well, probably because unemployment is sitting around 30% in Iran and all these young people cannot find work and are suffering. In other words, they voted for The Other Guy, probably looking for someone, anyone, to make things better for their daily lives, as most voters act around the world. Western Democracy cannot exist and is not wanted by Iran when the vast majority are still in favor of retaining the Islamic religious rule, headed by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and the hep cats that make up the Guardian Council. There will be no reforms under their watch. Period.
So pardon me if I think this is just the boiling over of general youthful frustration and hopelessness, and a clumsy vote rig brought it to the street. It would just be “meet the new boss, same as the old boss” in the end.
Basij ya later.
© Copyright 2008- Marianne Spellman