Iran's Green Revolution Continues
Andrew Sullivan has been covering the rapidly moving events in Iran for the past week. It is amazing stuff, but you won't see this kind of video on CNN or MSNBC, even though you might think that their cable news channels would be optimally designed for this kind of event. No, let's obsess over the failure of an amateur terrorist-wanna-bee instead.
There will be, no doubt, calls by some politicians that the United States ought to "do something." And in fact, the White House did release a statement condemning the violence by the Iranian government against its own people. If we're lucky, that's all that the US government will do at this time. It's foolish to suggest overt (or covert) support for the Iranian Green Revolution, as the regime in power will use that against them. Similarly, idiots on the right may call for military muscle to be flexed, which would be similarly harmful. The Iranian public is going to have to work this out for themselves, and I hope that they'll be successful in resolving this crisis. This is not a call for inaction, but as Prof Walt observes, it is time to think about a) what we do if the Green Movement succeeds, b) what we do if it fails, and c) how to keep hawks in the United States and Israel from making things worse.
I can't stop from observing a bit of irony here. Bush 43 invades Iraq to create a "keystone democracy" for the rest of the Middle East to emulate, and instead creates a government that leans more toward the practices of the current Iranian government. Now, with this revolution in Iran, there may be a fundamental shift of power to a more Western-friendly government than the one that the US government emplaced in Iraq. You couldn't have made up a story like this that anyone would have believed ten years ago.
the CIA won't try to get involved, if they are not already.
Obama has all the chainey staff in charge at the CIA and the pentagon.
Some stuff you can't make up!
If Iran can overthrow the cadre of religious zealots currently controlling their government, can we do the same with ours?
and yelling "your in immanent danger!" . . you'll likely be tackled by security and the crowds will dutifully applaud as your dragged out.
.snark
Where was Obama's outrage when heads rolled in Copenhagen during peaceful protests.
Funny how protesters in Iran are reported as a 'green' revolution while in Copenhagen protesters are categorized as thugs.
Whatever suits the U.S. and her greed. All presidents are only tools of the corporations and unfortunately, Obama has turned out to be no different.
"While officials don't expect President Barack Obama's visit to attract tourists immediately, they hope it will provide free advertising for a financially struggling state that relies on travelers to keep its economy afloat."
"Shave Ice"
"If it's good enough for Obama, it's good enough for us, and I'm a Republican," said family patriarch Steve Salvatori as he sipped a root beer shave ice. "Most people on the mainland wouldn't know where Kailua is until you say, 'It's where Obama vacations.'"
to compare what the protesters in Denmark went through to what the Iranians go through when they piss off the government!!
I was pretty pissed off reading the comparison myself. Both groups have a legitimate right to protest these legitimate causes but unlike copenhagen, actual heads are rolling in Iran and people are being killed, innocents are being imprisoned! Why bring up Copenhagen??? This is not enough news?
I guess if we all allowed the MSM to tell us what to think, we would slant our opinions the same way. American cops can beat the hell out of someone who defies the law and we wouldn't care less but let an Iranian do the same and all of a sudden we're all profound humanitarians.
Many protesters in Copenhagen were beat and defiled just as many Iranian protesters were. The difference being however, those in Copenhagen were protesting something that effects all of us while protests in Iran have nothing at all to do with us.
I disagree that anyone should be subject to that type of treatment but Americans conveniently pick their outrage based mainly on the greed and money that corporations tell us to priortize.
that you think what happens in Iran has no bearing on us says to me that you have no idea what you're talking about when it comes to this subject.
I can't stop from observing a bit of irony here.
No irony. THAT'S the plan. Follow the money.
Vote GOP and move forward to the 18th Century.
such a 'hands off' policy in 1775-76.
and historian, but that's exactly what the French did in 1775-76. Nothing. They didn't provide material support until we showed we could beat the British. And that barely started in 1777, and real money and help from them didn't come until much later.
And you could thank Franklin and Jefferson for all that. You know, those two infamous pinko's.
I will grant you that we probably could not have won the war without the help of the French. Or it would have taken a Hell of a lot longer...
he watered the tree of liberty with teabags soaked in the blood of tyrants.
“Why would anyone with a functioning brain believe this guy?”
Some guy with an eating disorder
Good one!
http://img2.allposters.com/images/NGSPOD/1484...
as dangerous as African killer bees.
Hasa Diga Eebowai
Yes, but in their defense they make Killer honey!
:)
"I know that there are people who do not love their fellow
man, and I hate people like that! " ~ Tom Lehrer (1928 - )
... produce wanna from heaven?
at WalMart.
“Why would anyone with a functioning brain believe this guy?”
Some guy with an eating disorder
We (the CIA and others) are already very involved.
We have to be very careful. The Iranian government would love to prove the involvement of any foreign power as a reason to crack down on protesters.
See "MEK"
"The group’s armed unit operated from camps in Iraq near the Iran border since 1986. During the Iraq war, U.S. troops disarmed MEK and posted guards at its bases."
"I know that there are people who do not love their fellow
man, and I hate people like that! " ~ Tom Lehrer (1928 - )
Permanent War
"I can't stop from observing a bit of irony here. Bush 43 invades Iraq to create a "keystone democracy" for the rest of the Middle East to emulate, and instead creates a government that leans more toward the practices of the current Iranian government. Now, with this revolution in Iran, there may be a fundamental shift of power to a more Western-friendly government than the one that the US government emplaced in Iraq. You couldn't have made up a story like this that anyone would have believed ten years ago."
If that happens though the right will spin it into 'Bush taught them what freedom and demcracy meant when he ousted Saddam.' Or 'We knew if we started in Iraq the neighboring states would fall in line.'
Presidential Medal of Freedom from some future repubican president. He didn't award one to himself already did he?
If only Americans fought this hard for democracy after the 2000 "election".
race among the ruins is about it.
Bush wasn't worth dying for.
Still isn't.
"I know that there are people who do not love their fellow
man, and I hate people like that! " ~ Tom Lehrer (1928 - )
to die for now. Face it, life sucks here now.
We've gone from being Americans, to consumers, and now were "Human Capital".
by the curb with the dried up Christmas trees if those lever boys on Wall Street had not gotten the rating houses to stamp you with a Triple A rating after they bundled you up and sold you to some school teachers's pension fund. Look on the bright side.
“Why would anyone with a functioning brain believe this guy?”
Some guy with an eating disorder
Or even the 2004 "election." Or, hell, maybe hold the criminals from the past 8 years accountable.
I wonder if Mousavi would just "move forward" and let Ahmadinejad and gang off the hook were he to regain the presidency.
Thieves have an Honor Code and they take care of themselves.
I'm willing to guess that Ahmadinejad would have to have some serious political capital to escape prosecution considering Mousavi's own nephew was just shot dead in the protest.
this thing is not going away. Iranians don't do what you say if you hit them. They just get pissed off. And the more you hit them the more pissed off they get. This is not going to end well for Khamenei and Ahmadinejad.
What a lot of people don't realize is that if Iran changes, the whole world changes.
Al-Qaida in Yemen claims attack on US airliner.
Will Obama cut his Vacation short and order an attack on _______ fill in the blank?
so Republicans aren't screaming and hollering . . "That son of a bitch is playing golf in Hawaii and we've just been attacked by the Terrorists!"
I think I wrote on it at least 6 times until I fell back, exhausted.
JP
http://giveusthisdayourdailtydread.blogspot.com
Bush 43 invades Iraq to create a "keystone democracy" for the rest of the Middle East to emulate, and instead creates a government that leans more toward the practices of the current Iranian government.
"turnkey democracy" . . obviously it doesn't work that nicely.
those sentences from the original post by jason sigger
Turnkey Business
A new company with a business model that has already been set. Most franchises operate in this way. For example, if one wishes to open a McDonald's franchise, everything from the products to the uniforms has already been determined. One merely needs to put up the appropriate capital and start the business.
i was alluding to the never ending ineptitude of the DUHbya regime.
Barry in the Bush with Smiles.
In relation to this, I saw an Iranian expatriate on CNN whose family were obviously royalists (Shah) who fled Iran at the onset of the Iranian Revolution to Sweden. He was quoted as a spokesman for the Coalition for the "Liberation" of Iran. These are American/Western OIL & ENERGY interests ...
A major "burr under my saddle", so to speak, is the totally obvious genuflection of both Republican AND Democratic politicians to Israeli imperialist interests, specifically AIPAC. I say obvious, because it was an absolutely overt bill that Congress passed in the last legislative session to approve 400 Million USD$ earmarked for the destabilization of the legal, duly elected government of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Both Senators HR Clinton and BH Obama voted FOR this bill.
As far as I am concerned, each and every member of Congress that voted FOR this 400 Million USD$ expenditure are culpable for any and all further deterioration in relations with the independent state of Iran. Republicans can have a pass on this, as they have already acknowledged that they are the "Party of God" or the "American Taliban" - they are self-proclaimed chicken-shit chicken-hawks. (Bomb, Bomb, Bomb; bomb, bomb Iran" ring any bells, people? I hold the Democratic Party to higher standards however, and no Democrat should be allowed to pass themselves off as either liberal or progressive or liberal progressive that voted FOR this travesty of justice.
The USA's intelligence agencies, in their Orwellian "Double-Speak/New-Speak" propaganda have a cute name for the law of unintended consequences -- BLOWBACK. It's as if they are totally absolved of responsibility for "terrorist acts" against targets in the USA homeland. Just like "acceptable levels of civilian casualties" (acceptable to whom?) are passed off as, euphemistically, COLLATERAL DAMAGE. At which point will the majority of the American people hold their bought-and-paid-for Politicians responsible for this bald-faced imperialistic warmongering?
While there is a slim (very slim) possibility that this political uprising in Iran is homegrown, isn't it far more likely that this is a direct result of American imperialistic interference in another country's domestic affairs, to the tune of 400 Million USD$ Overtly, and untold Billions USD$ Covertly? Just like the slim (very slim) possibility that those 3 hikers captured inside the Iranian border were merely college students, rather than CIA/NSA or MOSSAD agents, right? Figure the odds, people!
Our MSM is playing up public opinion for open warfare against yet another Middle eastern nation that has never posed any threat to the USA. Thank the (American) gods of war for American Exceptionalism. Welcome to the new boss, same as the old boss -- change we can believe in, right Rahm/Obama?
Perhaps the Tea-Baggers are right in one regard - perhaps it is time for another American Revolution, like our Declaration of Independence tells us to do ...
"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable."
-- John F. Kennedy
What he said.
already following the Iranian news sources on Twitter, give it a try.
Some sources to watch include:
http://www.twitter.com/irannewsnow
http://www.twitter.com/iranstreets
http://www.twitter.com/iran88
and Reza Aslan is also informative about this:
http://www.twitter.com/aslanmedia
"The greatest tyranny is censoring information in order to be better able to control people." - Cristina Saralegui
..for the military industrial complex. It is essential for that industrial conglomeration for the American people to believe that violence and or violent rhetoric wins wars. For non violence to win would be a major setback for them
Thus, expect an attack on Iran. Preserving war is more important than preserving America, or Iran, or life for that matter.
I went to college with a few Iranian students (diplomat kids) my freshman year in 1978 before the revolution and they disappeared by second term however, they were the most drunken, gambling, fighting and looking to fuck anything dudes I ever met. Smart as shit too, really polite, learned allot from them and good guys to be around.
Frank Zappa - Make A Jazz Noise Here
You couldn't have made up a story like this that anyone would have believed ten years ago.
Except that 10 years ago, the government of Iran was already moving towards liberalization and moderation, due to the baby boom generation in the country (born at the end of the Iran/Iraq war) who were young and wanted a more relaxed government. Then Bush came to power in the US, 9/11 happened and in the early 2000s the hard-liners in Iran were able to re-establish control of the country by pointing to the threat the US represented to Muslims.
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