Meltdown or Melt UP in Iran
Democracy is a funny business where you have the right to protest when you think your government is subject to criminal acts. Criminal acts like ballot box stuffing, election fraud, or even a dictatorship by religious zealots. Leaders that would unleash full brutality upon their own people that actually thought they lived in a democracy. That is exactly the case in Iran.
No amount of guns or violence will ever quell or silence the voice for freedom from any people anywhere on this planet. Freedom is a dish that once it is served to you, you can not refuse second or third helpings. Iranian’s have tasted freedom, they have learned what freedom is, they like the concept and they will not give it up without a fight. The ruling religious clerics made a fatal mistake by taking the strong arm against the protesters. Eye for an eye is the law of the land in Iran, that is the law the clerics live by. That is the law that all Iranian’s live by and that law is not limited or dismissive of the clerics that rule with an iron fist or a bloodied baton. Note to self, if I am ever a dictator, quelling or silencing a rebellion is best done by not reinventing the Nazi SS and killing my own people. Over at the WAPO they have this on arresting Mousavi who allegedly lost the last presidential election in Iran…
By Thomas Erdbrink and William Branigin
Washington Post Foreign Service
Sunday, June 21, 2009; 5:17 PM
TEHRAN, June 21 -- Government media Sunday lashed out at opposition leader Mir Hussein Mousavi, suggesting that some of his actions were illegal and blaming terrorists for the deadly clashes here Saturday. But the former prime minister responded by strongly condemning the use of force against the protesters and urged his supporters to stay calm.
Mousavi, who maintains he was cheated of victory in the June 12 election over President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, argued in a posting on his banned newspaper's Web site that Iranians have the right to protest against fraud. - Washington Post
Video Link
Freedom is based in information. Iranian leaders blocked all internet and any reporters from reporting the facts going on. Right off the bat that tells me they are very afraid. Somebody do a Zurich Switzerland search and see where they are hiding the money from the comfy religious leadership positions they hold. Maybe Google or Bing can come up with some interesting information that the Iranian people would really like to know about.
Iranian’s have a chance to take their nation back and much to the world’s dismay the United States is taking a hands off approach. President Obama just doesn’t want to get involved and I honestly believe his approach is the correct direction needed. This situation in Iran is an internal problem for the people of Iran to deal with. Any outside influence from the United States government would be construed as an overthrow of the sovereignty of Iran. Revolutions are won by the people and not by words from a world leader thousands of miles away.
One of my best friends is an Iranian immigrant that became a U.S. citizen, he works his ass off to make a life for himself and his family. He would work twenty plus hours a day to make sure his children have a better opportunity in life than he ever had. But he is a realist. He lives with the stigma that he is Iranian, people immediately judge him. They shouldn’t. My Jewish friend from Iran left his homeland and country because he feared for his life. I thank God above that he made it to America where he can be free. And yet he isn’t.
Iran needs to work out its own issues and her people need to decide the fate of the Mullahs who now rule with an iron fist. Many people are going to die in this fight and my heart goes out to them. Mir Hussein Mousavi may just be one of them that will pay the ultimate price for democracy in his homeland. State police will most likely arrest him, torture him, and ultimately hang him or kill him by some other means for treason. And when or if that happens, the Mullahs days of rule will end in Iran. Democracy does not live in the mind of one man or woman but in the hearts of the many.
Say a prayer for the protesters in Iran that freedom will find its home in Tehran once more. They voted to unseat a madman and their vote was stolen. Democracy was stolen from the Iranian people.
Papamoka
No amount of guns or violence will ever quell or silence the voice for freedom from any people anywhere on this planet. Freedom is a dish that once it is served to you, you can not refuse second or third helpings. Iranian’s have tasted freedom, they have learned what freedom is, they like the concept and they will not give it up without a fight. The ruling religious clerics made a fatal mistake by taking the strong arm against the protesters. Eye for an eye is the law of the land in Iran, that is the law the clerics live by. That is the law that all Iranian’s live by and that law is not limited or dismissive of the clerics that rule with an iron fist or a bloodied baton. Note to self, if I am ever a dictator, quelling or silencing a rebellion is best done by not reinventing the Nazi SS and killing my own people. Over at the WAPO they have this on arresting Mousavi who allegedly lost the last presidential election in Iran…
By Thomas Erdbrink and William Branigin
Washington Post Foreign Service
Sunday, June 21, 2009; 5:17 PM
TEHRAN, June 21 -- Government media Sunday lashed out at opposition leader Mir Hussein Mousavi, suggesting that some of his actions were illegal and blaming terrorists for the deadly clashes here Saturday. But the former prime minister responded by strongly condemning the use of force against the protesters and urged his supporters to stay calm.
Mousavi, who maintains he was cheated of victory in the June 12 election over President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, argued in a posting on his banned newspaper's Web site that Iranians have the right to protest against fraud. - Washington Post
Video Link
Freedom is based in information. Iranian leaders blocked all internet and any reporters from reporting the facts going on. Right off the bat that tells me they are very afraid. Somebody do a Zurich Switzerland search and see where they are hiding the money from the comfy religious leadership positions they hold. Maybe Google or Bing can come up with some interesting information that the Iranian people would really like to know about.
Iranian’s have a chance to take their nation back and much to the world’s dismay the United States is taking a hands off approach. President Obama just doesn’t want to get involved and I honestly believe his approach is the correct direction needed. This situation in Iran is an internal problem for the people of Iran to deal with. Any outside influence from the United States government would be construed as an overthrow of the sovereignty of Iran. Revolutions are won by the people and not by words from a world leader thousands of miles away.
One of my best friends is an Iranian immigrant that became a U.S. citizen, he works his ass off to make a life for himself and his family. He would work twenty plus hours a day to make sure his children have a better opportunity in life than he ever had. But he is a realist. He lives with the stigma that he is Iranian, people immediately judge him. They shouldn’t. My Jewish friend from Iran left his homeland and country because he feared for his life. I thank God above that he made it to America where he can be free. And yet he isn’t.
Iran needs to work out its own issues and her people need to decide the fate of the Mullahs who now rule with an iron fist. Many people are going to die in this fight and my heart goes out to them. Mir Hussein Mousavi may just be one of them that will pay the ultimate price for democracy in his homeland. State police will most likely arrest him, torture him, and ultimately hang him or kill him by some other means for treason. And when or if that happens, the Mullahs days of rule will end in Iran. Democracy does not live in the mind of one man or woman but in the hearts of the many.
Say a prayer for the protesters in Iran that freedom will find its home in Tehran once more. They voted to unseat a madman and their vote was stolen. Democracy was stolen from the Iranian people.
Papamoka
Labels: Ahmadinejad, Iran, Iran Facebook, Iran Internet, Iran News, Iran Twitter, Iranian Government, Mir Hussein, Mousavi, Protest in Iran, Protesters, Tehran
posted by Papamoka at
6:09 PM
2 Comments:
President Obama just doesn’t want to get involved and I honestly believe his approach is the correct direction needed.
Unfortunately this is true. Any publicly visible US involvement would play into the hands of the regime. Iranians are very touchy about any suggestion of foreign interference -- a legacy of the Western role in overthrowing Mosaddegh. The regime is desperate for some excuse to claim that the protests are linked to foreign interference -- so much so that they actually broadcasted an interview with Obama with a deliberately-false Persian translation saying that he was supporting the protests all-out.
That doesn't mean there's nothing we can do. The administration made a good move by asking Twitter to postpone its scheduled maintenance so that it would not suddenly go down when the demonstrators needed it. Western bloggers are getting the word out and keeping the world aware of what's happening (while the MSM has been pretty useless). Your idea of looking into whether the rulers have money hidden outside the country is a good one.
I'm in awe of the courage of the Iranians who are standing up to these thugs. Let's not forget that we have a stake in this too. If they succeed in replacing the Islamic Republic with a moderate secular state, it will be a huge step forward for the whole of the Middle East and will enormously alleviate all the problems we face there.
Papamoka:
I cannot improve on your and I-753’s excellent comments.
Everything is not about the United States. Regardless of Iran’s future, what is happening now will greatly increase international pressure against the current regime.
As you know, Iranian perceptions of our own country are based on some 50 years of our involvement in the Middle East. Not getting involved today is a good policy.
My impression of Iran will always be that formed from Betty Mahmoody’s book and the subsequent movie, “Not Without My Daughter,” starring Sally Field.
Biggest impression: “These people don’t think like us.”
I would like to think that some of those courageous Iranians who helped Betty and her little girl escape the fanatical madman her husband became are now marching in the streets.
Every quest for freedom has its heroes.
BJ
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