A recent commenter claimed Iran's election to be fair. To me, he came across as an apologist for the hardliners in Iran. Counting 48 million paper ballots doesn’t happen in 2 hours. Bringing out the police to make your point is not the actions of a winner. If the elections were fair, then why does the government feel the need to beat people for assembling to simply protest? We do that in America and Europe, even Israel, all the time.
Why do the bearded old men feel so threatened that their forces shot a young woman named NEDA, a bystander who died in front of the world on a cell phone video that Iranians themselves shot because the fraudulent winners of the alleged election shut down all media? We have seen why they don't want us to see those images in Iran, only seen by the world because of Twitter. When the pseudo-religious dictators shut down all TV and keep out foreign news media, how does that say free and fair?
These actions do not define a democracy. They show the world the truth of a religious dictatorship run amok. The mask has fallen off. We now see the narrow-minded mindset of religious extremists who panicked when they realized they were losing control and felt they had to steal it away from the peoples' choice, so the "election" would only be the choice of a few extremist Ayatollahs.
President Obama has played it smart. If he had done what many have demanded, it would have appeared that this was American-directed instead of the Iranian peoples' revolution it has been. That would have allowed the hardliners to kill their people by claiming an outside force behind it, and crush. They would have lied when in fact it a huge desire for CHANGE coming from a majority of Iranians inside Iran. It includes young Iranians who are tired of grumpy old extremists telling them how to run their lives in the global Internet age. Only the Internet age has made it possible for the first time in human history for the majority of people to show the world what is really happening despite the government pulling the plug on communications. Imagine how it would be for Chinese to be sending Tweets and photos from Tiananmen Square in 1989 when the tanks rolled in.
This is a true revolution from inside Iran. It remains to be seen how it will play out. But it is the most dramatic, unforeseen development in the Middle East in over 30 years -- by a oil-rich, borderline nuclear power. It comes at a critical moment in its development. This is a war between the hardline conservatives and the reformists and centrists. It is not unlike what happened in our last election.
Our security and the world’s security won't be helped if the President followed the advice of Mr. McCain and gave the Ayatollahs a gift, claiming it is an American-led change instead of a struggle for Iran’s soul by its own people that it is - Iran's people feel cheated out of their vote in an honest election. THAT is what is driving their gatherings in the streets. What else but anger at injustice and unfairness could bring people out in such masses? The Ayatollahs blew it – they never wanted “democracy” if it really followed the people’s will instead of their own.
If the people of Iran strike, the oil revenues of the Ayatollahs could up the ante. It could lead to an amazing change in the direction of Iran at a critical time. If the Ayatollah’s turn guns on their own people, they risk showing themselves as anything but religious.
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