While I haven't been reading any primary sources about the nascent rebellion amongst Mousavi supporters in Iran, Andrew Sullivan, Justin Gardner at Donklephant and Josh Marshall/TPM have been doing an admirable job following the tweets and reports coming out of Tehran and elsewhere in Iran.
Based upon all that information, it seems something is brewing Iran. Frustration over Ahmadinejad's isolating tendencies and crippling economic policies have boiled over following the purported outcome of the election - the Iranian authorities first having told Mousavi that he was victorious then only to announce that Ahmadinejad had trounced all takers, winning over 63% of votes cast.
People in and from Iran have been twittering allegations of fraud that appear extraordinarily consistent: ballot boxes stolen and burned, government clampdown on media during the final hours of the election, brute violence, et cetera. Now Mousavi's supporters have taken to the streets and are protesting the election, clashing with police and an internal group called Ansar-e Hezbollah. It appears, based on Sullivan's posting of tweets, that Ansar-e Hezbollah has been targeting college and university students and brutally attacking them.
Could you imagine that in the United States?
I can't.
Here's a link to English-language twitter feeds that Sullivan compiled: Following the Revolution in Iran.
Please discuss.
-rl
Showing posts with label Iran. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Iran. Show all posts
September 25, 2007
Ahmadinejad, Mahmood - (n., proper) - Current President of the Islamic Republic of Iran
As I've been perusing the news channels this AM, there's been a clear want for substantial coverage on Ahmadinejad's speech at Columbia University yesterday. Take for example the following banner on MSNBC's Scarborough (blech, to that end) Country: Ahmadinejad gets "schooled" at Columbia.
Nothing really substantive other than all the usual talk machines acting as propagandists against Ahmadinejad and for Bush's drumming up support for another war in his Messianic bid to bring about the end times. Whether we like it or not, Ahmadinejad was able to answer the questions posed to him very well, with maybe the exception of there be no homosexuals in Iran and that his government doesn't torture them and moreover calling homosexuality a fad in Western culture... wait a tic, how can he and Bush be enemies?
Anyhow, Ahmadinejad's performance yesterday proved his ability at being diplomatic, I daresay better than a certain 43rd President, and that he is scarily witty, still hates Israel, and talks willingly of cooperating with the United States, placing the US in the none-too-unfamiliar position of looking like the bad guy. While Bush tries to divert the collective attention of the country away from this, certain media sources have noted Ahmadinejad's playing a hand which almost forces the American hand.
What next?
-rl
Nothing really substantive other than all the usual talk machines acting as propagandists against Ahmadinejad and for Bush's drumming up support for another war in his Messianic bid to bring about the end times. Whether we like it or not, Ahmadinejad was able to answer the questions posed to him very well, with maybe the exception of there be no homosexuals in Iran and that his government doesn't torture them and moreover calling homosexuality a fad in Western culture... wait a tic, how can he and Bush be enemies?
Anyhow, Ahmadinejad's performance yesterday proved his ability at being diplomatic, I daresay better than a certain 43rd President, and that he is scarily witty, still hates Israel, and talks willingly of cooperating with the United States, placing the US in the none-too-unfamiliar position of looking like the bad guy. While Bush tries to divert the collective attention of the country away from this, certain media sources have noted Ahmadinejad's playing a hand which almost forces the American hand.
What next?
-rl
April 12, 2007
Conversations at work
At work I try to stray away from conversations regarding politics, mostly because I'm in Georgia and people down here tend to not be of political stripes and I don't want to get canned for causing too much unnecessary thinking. But today I was approached by a self-proclaimed evangelical Christian who asked me about my leaving the Christian fold. This conversation evolved into a discussion on politics and made me wonder why seemingly smart people can reject simple logic.
As it happened, said worker mentioned something about celebrities needing to keep their mouths shut on political issues, something I can agree with sometimes, and progressed to why "we shouldn't negotiate with Ahmadinejad". He said Ahmadinejad shouldn't be negotiated with because he is a "madman" and is a bad guy in general.
If Ahmadinejad is a madman, a madman whose most recent sin was holding British seamen hostage for breaching Iran's territorial integrity, one must wonder what the equivalent Iranian views George W. Bush, whose government deposed a leader of a sovereign nation, albeit a leader who maintained the delicate balance of rival groups through brute worse. Whose government holds people who are not even soldiers of any particular nation or militia for years without charge, engages in practices upon those detainees that are worse than what the British sailors have claimed.
By the way, "moderate" President Khatami's government also held British sailors upon British incursion in Iranian waters. Strike two crazies up for the Iranians.
Or strike Ahmadinejad up to being politically pragmatic and snappy, knowing how to play the west like a fiddle.
Oh, and did I happen to mention that we happen to have a lot of troops in two other countries right now? Oh yeah! Afghanistan and Iraq.
138,000 troops in Iraq.
27,000 troops in Afghanistan.
Should we embark upon another grand excursion? Should we now depose an elected leader of a country? Paging President Allende! Paging President Allende!
I asked him why another military adventure would be such a terrific idea.
Liberty, he says. Liberty for the people!
Liberty.
And justice.
For all.
Whatever and ever Amen!
O! How people have such great ideals! I can't recall the number of times I've been assailed for being too idealistic by cats like my coworker. But, lest we forget, it's okay to be hyperidealistic when you're hypernationalistic.
:throws arms in air:
-rl
As it happened, said worker mentioned something about celebrities needing to keep their mouths shut on political issues, something I can agree with sometimes, and progressed to why "we shouldn't negotiate with Ahmadinejad". He said Ahmadinejad shouldn't be negotiated with because he is a "madman" and is a bad guy in general.
If Ahmadinejad is a madman, a madman whose most recent sin was holding British seamen hostage for breaching Iran's territorial integrity, one must wonder what the equivalent Iranian views George W. Bush, whose government deposed a leader of a sovereign nation, albeit a leader who maintained the delicate balance of rival groups through brute worse. Whose government holds people who are not even soldiers of any particular nation or militia for years without charge, engages in practices upon those detainees that are worse than what the British sailors have claimed.
By the way, "moderate" President Khatami's government also held British sailors upon British incursion in Iranian waters. Strike two crazies up for the Iranians.
Or strike Ahmadinejad up to being politically pragmatic and snappy, knowing how to play the west like a fiddle.
Oh, and did I happen to mention that we happen to have a lot of troops in two other countries right now? Oh yeah! Afghanistan and Iraq.
138,000 troops in Iraq.
27,000 troops in Afghanistan.
Should we embark upon another grand excursion? Should we now depose an elected leader of a country? Paging President Allende! Paging President Allende!
I asked him why another military adventure would be such a terrific idea.
Liberty, he says. Liberty for the people!
Liberty.
And justice.
For all.
Whatever and ever Amen!
O! How people have such great ideals! I can't recall the number of times I've been assailed for being too idealistic by cats like my coworker. But, lest we forget, it's okay to be hyperidealistic when you're hypernationalistic.
:throws arms in air:
-rl
February 24, 2007
Bill Richardson's petition for diplomacy with Iran
Diplomacy, Not Attacks
Spread it around, round and round the blogosphere. We can't let Hot Shots, Part Deux, happen. Ahmadinejad isn't going to make this easy for our diplomats, either, so we need to be ready to grind this one out over the long haul AND we cannot let this turn into the typical blackmail that we've come to expect from the DPRK. I have faith in an America that has seen enough of the blood running through the streets of Baghdad. I hope they have enough faith in themselves to do the same and support a successful and peaceful resolution to the issue of Iranian nuclear missiles and related technologies.
That said, there is a wide open market for nuclear arms and tech amongst rogue actors and to say that we don't have people in play over in Iran seeking to disrupt stability may be a little naïve... This is a matter worth watching very closely to see if Iran tries to go tit-for-tat.
Speaking of hot shots, Tom Vilsack has dropped out of the 2008 presidential race, apparently making Iowa's caucuses a bit less of a sure bet for Vilsack. Heh.
Scratch the If I Ran Things Around Here installment. :( I need to conduct a little more research before I decide to shoot off the higher education funding post. Eh.
-rsl
Spread it around, round and round the blogosphere. We can't let Hot Shots, Part Deux, happen. Ahmadinejad isn't going to make this easy for our diplomats, either, so we need to be ready to grind this one out over the long haul AND we cannot let this turn into the typical blackmail that we've come to expect from the DPRK. I have faith in an America that has seen enough of the blood running through the streets of Baghdad. I hope they have enough faith in themselves to do the same and support a successful and peaceful resolution to the issue of Iranian nuclear missiles and related technologies.
That said, there is a wide open market for nuclear arms and tech amongst rogue actors and to say that we don't have people in play over in Iran seeking to disrupt stability may be a little naïve... This is a matter worth watching very closely to see if Iran tries to go tit-for-tat.
Speaking of hot shots, Tom Vilsack has dropped out of the 2008 presidential race, apparently making Iowa's caucuses a bit less of a sure bet for Vilsack. Heh.
Scratch the If I Ran Things Around Here installment. :( I need to conduct a little more research before I decide to shoot off the higher education funding post. Eh.
-rsl
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