I have been following events in Iran like nearly everyone else. I am old enough to have strong memories of the 1979 revolution and, like many people my age, see some superficial similarities now.
I have not covered the Iranian conflict because my resources are completely inadequate and because there are already a number of more powerful blogs out there doing an excellent job.
So I will point you to a few.
Let's start with a few quotes from today's piece in Slate by Christopher Hitchens:
One of the signs of Iran's underdevelopment is the culture of rumor and paranoia that attributes all ills to the manipulation of various demons and satans. And, of course, the long and rich history of British imperial intervention in Persia does provide some support for the notion. But you have no idea how deep is the primitive belief that it is the Anglo-Saxons—more than the CIA, more even than the Jews—who are the puppet masters of everything that happens in Iran.
The best-known and best-selling satirical novel in the Persian language is My Uncle Napoleon, by Iraj Pezeshkzad, which describes the ridiculous and eventually hateful existence of a family member who subscribes to the "Brit Plot" theory of Iranian history. The novel was published in 1973 and later made into a fabulously popular Iranian TV series. Both the printed and televised versions were promptly banned by the ayatollahs after 1979 but survive in samizdat form. Since then, one of the leading clerics of the so-called Guardian Council, Ahmad Jannati, has announced in a nationwide broadcast that the bombings in London on July 7, 2005, were the "creation" of the British government itself. I strongly recommend that you get hold of the Modern Library paperback of Pezeshkzad's novel, produced in 2006, and read it from start to finish...
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There is then the larger question of the Iranian theocracy and its continual, arrogant intervention in our affairs: its export of violence and cruelty and lies to Lebanon and Palestine and Iraq and its unashamed defiance of the United Nations, the European Union, and the International Atomic Energy Agency on the nontrivial matter of nuclear weapons. I am sure that I was as impressed as anybody by our president's decision to quote Martin Luther King—rather late in the week—on the arc of justice and the way in which it eventually bends. It was just that in a time of crisis and urgency he was citing the wrong King text (the right one is to be found in the "Letter From a Birmingham Jail"), and it was also as if he were speaking as the president of Iceland or Uruguay rather than as president of these United States. Coexistence with a nuclearized, fascistic theocracy in Iran is impossible even in the short run. The mullahs understand this with perfect clarity. Why can't we?
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If there is one name I would recommend you seek out while trying to keep up with events in Iran, it has to be Michael Totten. Totten has travelled extensively in the Middle East and has been tireless in posting on recent events at his own blog and in Commentary:
I do not trust Iranian opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi. He is part of the Khomeinist establishment, although a crudely sidelined one at the moment. His record as former prime minister isn’t much more attractive than Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s record as president.
The democracy movement is rallying around him, but the activists should be careful. Ruhollah Khomeini managed to convince Iranian liberals and leftists to forge an alliance with him to topple the Shah Reza Pahlavi in 1979, but he brutally smashed them once the revolution swept the old regime out of power. Alliances between liberals and Islamists is extraordinarily dangerous – for liberals.
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This has been my own opinion for some days now. I can't stop worrying that Mousavi is simply using these idealistic protesters as cannon fodder in his rise to power. I can't help wondering if, beyond the street level, what is really going on is a kind of Soviet-style 'purge' to determine succession, using the protests as a convenient fig leaf for the cameras. After all, if he is so dangerous to the status quo, why is Mousavi still walking around free? There have been reports of many other arrests and beatings. Why has Mousavi not been "disappeared?"
Here are some further thoughts on Mousavi, first from Raymond Tanter at the Daily Beast:
The loyal opposition leader celebrated in the West, Mir Hossein Mousavi, presided over Iranian terrorist activities, including the 1983 U.S. Marine barracks bombing in Lebanon and hostage taking of Western nationals. And according to other opposition sources, Mousavi implemented Ayatollah Khomeini’s policy of executions, beginning in the summer of 1981.
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The Belmont Club has further thoughts:
Mousavi is no more a “moderate” than Ahmadinejad according to a former Indian diplomat, M K Bhadrakumar. “Most likely, he had a hand in the creation of Hezbollah in Lebanon. Ali Akbar Mohtashami, Hezbollah’s patron saint, served as his interior minister.” That’s Mousavi, who Michael Ledeen called one the architects of the some of the most repressive features of the current Iranian regime. So why, with the elections fundamentally rigged by the state and in fact a disguised process of appointment between two members of the Iranian establishment, did the clerics choose Ahmadinejad over the man who so artfully depicted himself as a reformer and who captured the protest vote of the Iranian youth and intelligensia?
The probable answer is one word: money. Within Iranian ruling circles, Mousavi represented the economic enemies of Khamenei and Ahmadinejad according to Bhadrakumar. While Mousavi could package himself as a ‘reformer’ and to some extent genuinely capture the enthusiasm of the dissidents, the choice of between him and Ahmadinejad was really over who would get to control the economy.
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What has been happening in the U.S. blogosphere says more about Americans than it does about Iran. Americans- and God bless this quality in our people- still believe in 'people power,' in the ability of the popular will to bring down unjust governments. We also love the underdog. The idea of a mass movement toppling the brutal Iranian government and creating a peaceful democracy in its place resonates with our most basic, cherished beliefs. Many of us want to see this happen- and that's not wrong. It looks as though this is what the protesters want, too.
But is that really Mousavi's aim? And, as I said earlier, if it is, why isn't he in jail? If it is his aim to tear down the mullahcrocy and install democracy, then he is openly threatening those he once collaborated with.
I don't know the answer, but I this is worth thinking about.
Power to the People!
Caution to the demagogues.
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