Tehran Tea Party
Thursday, June 18, 2009 at 03:42AM Unlike the recently overblown Tea Party Demonstrations here in the U.S.A. that involved more staged and tacky "To the barricades!" moments than a High School production of Les Miserables, hundreds of thousands of Iranians are showing the World what real political protest in the face of real danger is all about. Good for them.
Make no mistake, in a theocratic police state, political protest is fraught with danger. Add in the wacky ingredient of radical Islamic Clerics, and you've got a recipe for disaster that would make Emeril think twice before turning it up a notch.
The usual ATW post by some of my fellow writers about Iran involves wholescale bombing. Or perhaps retail bombing since they suggest it will have to be done by the Jews, I mean Israel. Such a strategy would of course incinerate the hundreds of thousands of Iranians who seem to differ with the course of Iran's policies. The degree of difference of course is not as much as we in the West might hope, but certainly it is a start towards restoring more sanity to the World.
By the way, the folks protesting the dubious election numbers, at great personal risk in a police state, happen to be Muslim.
Why are they taking such risk? Domestic Economic issues, an embarrassment with their ruling class and the cartoonish leader, the natural inclination for basic rights, and perhaps, to a certain extent, a World leader who said lets talk to each other instead of at each other for a change.
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Reader Comments (18)
How nice to be a dreamer and not a doer.
Your mockery of the Tea Parties is the first clue. Your inclusion of Emeril an indication of the seriousness with which you approach the subject. Your insinuation of Israel as a retailer of destruction shows inclination to bias.
And what does this sentence mean in the context of wholesale and retail which preceded it;
"The degree of difference of course is not as much as we in the West might hope, but certainly it is a start toward restoring more sanity to the World."
Makes no sense.
And I ask, how Muslim are they, when they desire freedom. A very contradictory ideal when compared to the Koran. A Lutheran reformation in the works... perhaps.
Your explanations for why they are doing this... laughable, in all seriousness. Especially;
" a World leader who said lets talk to each other instead of at each other for a change."
Your naiveté is exceeded only by your seeming lack of experience in how the world actually works and the evil which it contains.
Oooh I like him! Can we keep him?
"perhaps, to a certain extent, a World leader who said lets talk to each other instead of at each other for a change."
I think 'despite' is the word you're looking for. Every reconciliatory statement the man makes to the Mullahs undermines the pro-democracy forces in Iran. The Berlin Wall didn't fall because Reagan spent two terms of office telling the Russians how cool they were and how much Communism had contributed to the world, it fell because the people under those regimes knew that the West was fighting for them to be free. Whereas Obama...not so much with the help.
I wonder if you'd have said 'good for them' if the Tea Parties had really gone to the barricades. I'm thinking No. And as for the cheap 'retail' shot, that ought to be beneath you but evidently isn't. But it's filed for the next time you moan about stereotyping...
Please can we give Luther a login David?
I wrote about the young people in Tehran two years ago on ATW and predicted their anxiousness for change. About the post-1979 baby boom, urged on by Ayatollah Khomeini, the mad cleric who led the revolution, which resulted in 50 per cent of the Iranian population today being under 25 years old so that he could create an Ayatollah's army. Instead he unwittingly produced a pro Western generation who have been pushing for change.
Not that religion has anything at all to do with the current change, the kids there largely practise Sufism. A vastly different "brand" of Islam. It is a religion that emphasises peace, serenity and release. It was also adopted as the preferred choice by Ed Hussein, a young man who regularly appears on the news here having written a book condemning Islamic extremism and the lack of willingness of anyone to criticise Islam. He was a young Bradford jihadi previously caught up in training camps abroad.
This is what Moussavi wrote and which I quote in my piece a few years back:
"The state is flexible, they will accept what the youth is pushing on them," said Mohammad Moussavi, a former Iranian ambassador. "Over the next five years we will see the transition start. I don't see cracks in the system but evolution."
Not even he predicted the fury with which these young people would pour out over this. And what inspired them? The fact that Moussavi, mediocre at best, was seen holding his wife's hand in public. And that his wife was allowed to speak her mind.
I agree with Luther re the mockery and seriousness too. You critique the people on ATW who have little influence on anything truth be told. Meanwhile the great left wing heel, Galloway, is out their actively gunning for Dinnerjacket and pouring cold water on their bloodied brave young efforts. And many of them are now slamming Obama on the streets (quote on other blogs) because he fails to even offer a mild word of encouragement while actively engaging in Israel meddling.
Excellent post, mahons. The Obama effect is already being felt in the region: in Lebanon, in Israel and in Iran.
"The Berlin Wall ...fell because the people under those regimes knew that the West was fighting for them to be free."
Absolute nonsense. If they thought about the West at all, which they in fact rarely did, it was as a place to escape to. They knew that the west never did lift a finger to help them and that they - in this case - also didnt need such help.
I have no doubt the people in Iran are thinking the same way. Obama's approach is the right one; and when it bears fruit the begrudgers here will have to think of some new, even more feeble, explanation.
To think the unthinkable for a moment: What if Amaheadbanger actually won the election? The reported margin is almost 2:1 which is in line with polling evidence before the vote took place.
In all the brouha, the widespread support for the holocaust-denier, especially among the rural masses, is ignored.
And in any case, the nuclear programme will continue full speed, whoever is in power. That's common ground betweeen all the contestants.
DSD - Reagan used diplomatic efforts and ongoing talks with the Soviets, or don't you recall?
Luther - You like me, you really really like me!
To even tacitly credit what is going on in Iran as an "Obama effect" neatly underlines the incredible arrogance of liberals. The same type of left wing butterfly who would sneer at western meddling in other's affairs ordinarily.
Oh be still your beating hypocrisy Noel. Mousavi predicts the change in the region 5 years before anyone has even heard of Obama and you wade into to attribute this all to him. Snort!
If you have no doubt "how they are thinking" then you should cast an eye over Twitter where the bulk of the coordination for this change is occuring and knock yourself out at their appreciation of the liberal NYTs publishing of the organisers names. And Obama's muted condemnation of even the direct state violence.
The nuclear programme will press on regardless. All or most Iranians view that as a matter of national pride.
>>To even tacitly credit what is going on in Iran as an "Obama effect" neatly underlines the incredible arrogance of liberals. <<
Well, as several of your right-wing cronies on ATW were, when the election results first came in, saying effectively the same: that the victory for Ahmadinejad was proof that Obama diplomacy wasn't working - and I don't remember you complaining about that then - I think I am entitled to give kudos where kudos are due when the reverse turns out to be the case.
BTW, I think you're grossly exaggerating the role of such things as "Twitter" in this ursurge of people power.
You are, however, right IMO about the nuclear programme. There are nevertheless grounds for hope that any shift towards Mousavi politics will be just the first step in a general liberalisation of society and foreign policy.
>>Mousavi predicts the change in the region 5 years before anyone has even heard of Obama<<
And it never happened. Until of course an intelligent and far-sighted man took over in DC.
Errr..... Go Obama!
Ohhhh so they timed their elections for Obama? LOL! Thanks for that. Man, that was priceless
By your extended logic we can extend the kudos to neocons and Bush and maybe even Iraq for the growing protests I have covered here the last 5 years, in spite of stiff opposition from ATWs resident righties and yourself.
Admit it. You need your traditional poster boy don't you Noel. Hell, even I'm not about to posit their Mousavi as any great shakes in all this just because he's a statesman.
Please advise the State Dept they were wrong to circumvent Obama and ask for Twitter to save it's planned repairs for another week. Your comment on the mediim they are using tells me all I need to know about your views on this Noel. You reside on that very special planet pseudo traditional liberals inhabit. Planet HUA!
The heavy lifting will have to be by the Iranian people themselves, and of course the protests are primarily driven by the people there. The American Administration is taking a subtle and low key position which makes sense to me (prevents the Mullahs from linking the protest to American agitation). And a diplomatic tone, instead of a purely bellicose tone from Washington, gives the moderate elements (a relative term I know) some room to work.
Mahons,
"And a diplomatic tone, instead of a purely bellicose tone from Washington, gives the moderate elements (a relative term I know) some room to work."
Also the less bellicose Obama is, the more it robs the Mullahs of an external enemy to attempt to unite people against.
I guess you need to be following it all on Twitter guys, but Dinnerjacket’s already circulated the “foreign” rumour since this is all operating off Twitter and social networking platforms and so is busily arresting “traitors”.
The protestors aren’t and never have bought that. So should it matter to Obama now? Probably not..
If the majority of Iranians believe that Ahmadinejad's re-election is not legit and see this as their shot, its’ already more likely that Obama's silence in the face of these events will be viewed as equal example in that long history of meddling rather than the end of it. Obama merely sees Ahmadinejad as his negotiating partner on the nuclear issue having written the protests off (maybe correctly given the state can crackdown at will).
He wants to do as little as possible to antagonize the Big A. Frankly, no better than George W Bush who was always accused of seeking “US interests” FIRST around these parts but who actually did very little bellicosing regards Iran.
Staying stum when State forces open fire on protestors or round up “dissidents” and "traitors" does not an international liberal hero make. Neither does it strengthen or validate the UN position on words not war when those words so clearly aren’t forthcoming at a time like this.
In short his silence has robbed the mullahs of absolutely nothing. Neither would it unite the people against him.
They ain't waving banners in English aswell as Farsi in those brave protests for the sheer linguistic hell of it.
Subtle is not silence and the proof is in the pudding.
You're watching the Middle East change. And it has nothing to do with Obama' subtleties.
Well we can disagree on the contributing factors, but I think we agree on the remarkable events.
Yes, Mahons, I really, really like you. I'm glad you noticed.