By Charles Kurzman
Source: Foreign Policy
Charles Kurzman's ZSpace Page
Predictions about Iran are a dime a dozen these days. And that's exactly what they're worth.
Déja vu: The crowds in Iran look awfully familiar. And they're just as unpredictable as they were in 1978.
Troops are out in Iran this week, but in many cases the crowds have grown so large that the security forces are standing back and letting them swarm silently and peacefully through the boulevards -- just like in 1978.
Chants of Allah-o-akbar, God is great, reverberate from rooftops at night, expressing popular revulsion against the dictatorial regime -- just like 1978. The government has assaulted university campuses and shut down the opposition's offices, but these and other crackdowns have only sparked further protest -- just like 1978.
...but WHO will take over this time?
ReplyDeleteIranian Elections: The ‘Stolen Elections’ Hoax
ReplyDelete<div class="EC_articleAuthorName">By Prof. James Petras</div>
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<div class="EC_articleAuthorName">http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=14018
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“Change for the poor means food and jobs, not a relaxed dress code or mixed recreation..
ReplyDelete<p>. Politics in Iran is a lot more about class war than religion.”
Financial Times Editorial, June 15 2009
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<p>"...The great majority of voters for the incumbent probably felt that national security interests, the integrity of the country and the social welfare system, with all of its faults and excesses, could be better defended and improved with Ahmadinejad than with upper-class technocrats supported by Western-oriented privileged youth who prize individual life styles over community values and solidarity.
<p>The demography of voting reveals a real class polarization pitting high income, free market oriented, capitalist individualists against working class, low income, community based supporters of a ‘moral economy’ in which usury and profiteering are limited by religious precepts. The open attacks by opposition economists of the government welfare spending, easy credit and heavy subsidies of basic food staples did little to ingratiate them with the majority of Iranians benefiting from those programs. The state was seen as the protector and benefactor of the poor workers against the ‘market’, which represented wealth, power, privilege and corruption. The Opposition’s attack on the regime’s ‘intransigent’ foreign policy and positions ‘alienating’ the West only resonated with the liberal university students and import-export business groups. To many Iranians, the regime’s military buildup was seen as having prevented a US or Israeli attack...."
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<p>http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=14018
Personally, I think you should watch this video if you have not seen it already - because in it you will find a match, a repetitive pattern of "dissatisfaction" seen in Iran today. Even if you have seen the video before, watch it again - it will come like a fresh light on the current situation in Iran -
ReplyDeleteTHE REVOLUTION WILL NOT BE TELEVISED
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5832390545689805144&ei=gCk8SqfdAZLIqAKRu4zeCg&q=the+revolution+will+not+be+televised&hl=en&emb=1
<p style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; line-height: normal; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto;"><span style="">At 14:40 </span>
ReplyDelete<p style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; line-height: normal; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto;"><span style=""><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“In the past, Venezuelan governments have imposed heavy censorship on the media, but under Chavez there was now total freedom of expression…Chavez faced an almost daily battle with the private media …but like all battles it was one that he seemed to relish.”</span>
<p style="margin: 0in 0in 12pt; line-height: 120%;"><span style="">If Chavez can run a whole country without censorship, why can’t we run a blog like that? </span><span style=""></span>
<p style="margin: 0in 0in 12pt; line-height: 120%;"><span style="">“…the re-distributive policies of the Ahmadinejad government had helped the ethnic Azeris write off debt, obtain cheap credits and easy loans for the farmers…</span><span style=""> </span><span style="">In general, Ahmadinejad did very well in the oil and chemical producing provinces. This may have be a reflection of the oil workers’ opposition to the ‘reformist’ program, which included proposals to ‘privatize’ public enterprises.”</span>
ReplyDelete<p style="margin: 0in 0in 12pt; line-height: 120%;"><span style="">I didn’t know that! Thanks for the link Marion. </span>
hehehe - well, you'll have to ask the ones that run the blog r.s. My guess is that there may be some form of insecurity, or they are doing it for the sake of others who get attacked or whatever. The only conceivable form of censorship I would even consider is if someone is being stalked by some other party and it either terrifies or drives them away. Other than that I say let people fight it out, and may the person with the most facts and grasp of reality in whatever subject at hand win.
ReplyDeleteWho is being censored, r.s.?
ReplyDeleteMore of interest reports:
ReplyDeleteLearning to Live With the Devil We Know
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20090616_learning_to_live_with_the_devil_we_know/
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The Lebanese Elections
By Karim Makdisi
http://www.counterpunch.org/makdisi06172009.html
***
Iranian Elections: The "Stolen Elections" Hoax
http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=14018
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<span>Henry Kissinger on BBC talking about the need for an emergence of a new regime in Iran out of the
present presidential elections crisis.</span>
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jc8EWr2B5so&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fvineyardsaker.blogspot.com%2F&feature=player_embedded
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Beijing cautions US over Iran
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/KF20Ak03.html
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Oh, what a surprise China would take that stance!
ReplyDeleteVZA, as a big admirer and supporter of China; I am unpleasantly saddened by China's response. China should stay silent until the Iranian situation resolves itself.
ReplyDeleteFrom the Petras article linked above:
ReplyDelete"There is hardly any election, in which the White House has a significant stake, where the electoral defeat of the pro-US candidate is not denounced as illegitimate by the entire political and mass media elite."
Well that makes it even. There is hardly an electoral win of a pro-U.S. candidate that is not denounced by the comrades as illegitimate... or what is that favorite term of derision... a puppet government?
The hypocrisy flows both ways, folks. If those protesters in Iran were out there in the same number challenging the vote after a pro-U.S. candidate won, the usual "truth to power" crowd and media would be tripping over themselves in their praise of the young fighters for freedom.
Your welcome r.s.
ReplyDeleteAre the Iranian Election Protests Another US Orchestrated ‘Color Revolution’?
ReplyDeleteby Paul Craig Roberts for Information Clearing House
http://vineyardsaker.blogspot.com/2009/06/are-iranian-election-protests-another.html
WOTN: <span>RT @Ritalynman: RT Iran: Hezbollah is KILLING The PEOPLE of Iran, TELL THE WORLD! #iranelection</span> <span>less than 10 seconds ago <span>from TweetDeck</span></span>
ReplyDeleteThe U.S. government is a puppet government
ReplyDeleteThis is probably too obvious to even mention, but has it struck anyone else besides me how differently the mainstream media portrays Iranian protesters and Palestinian protesters? It would seem one group is made up of brave lovers of freedom, while the other group is made up of hate filled fanatics. There are at least three reasons why the coverage gives such wildly different impressions:
ReplyDelete1. There is no full historic context given to the events in the Palestinian story.
2. The Palestinian story is presented from the point of view of the Isrealis, while the Iranian story is presented from the point of view of the protesters,
3. Every few lines, the reader of stories about Palestine, the reader must be reminded that Israel is our friend and the Palestinians are terrorists.
Very astute points Joe, now the only question that needs to be answered is "why" there are different perspectives presented? I think people know instinctively what is going on, and the ones who deny it are just disingenuous to the core.
ReplyDelete