Hope and Change — but Not for Iran

[Warph]

Hope and Change — but Not for Iran
By Charles Krauthammer

Millions of Iranians take to the streets to defy a theocratic dictatorship that, among its other finer qualities, is a self-declared enemy of America and the tolerance and liberties it represents. The demonstrators are fighting on their own, but they await just a word that America is on their side.

And what do they hear from the president of the United States? Silence. Then, worse. Three days in, the president makes clear his policy: continued "dialogue" with their clerical masters.

Dialogue with a regime that is breaking heads, shooting demonstrators, expelling journalists, arresting activists. Engagement with — which inevitably confers legitimacy upon — leaders elected in a process that begins as a sham (only four handpicked candidates permitted out of 476) and ends in overt rigging.

Then, after treating this popular revolution as an inconvenience to the real business of Obama-Khamenei negotiations, the president speaks favorably of "some initial reaction from the Supreme Leader that indicates he understands

the Iranian people have deep concerns about the election." Where to begin? "Supreme Leader"? Note the abject solicitousness with which the American president confers this honorific on a clerical dictator who, even as his minions attack demonstrators, offers to examine some returns in some electoral districts — a farcical fix that will do nothing to alter the fraudulence of the election.
 
Moreover, this incipient revolution is no longer about the election. Obama totally misses the point. The election allowed the political space and provided the spark for the eruption of anti-regime fervor that has been simmering for years and awaiting its moment. But people aren't dying in the street because they want a recount of hanging chads in suburban Isfahan. They want to bring down the tyrannical, misogynist, corrupt theocracy that has imposed itself with the very baton-wielding goons that today attack the demonstrators.

This started out about election fraud. But like all revolutions, it has far outgrown its origins. What's at stake now is the very legitimacy of this regime — and the future of the entire Middle East.

This revolution will end either as a Tiananmen (a hot Tiananmen with massive and bloody repression or a cold Tiananmen with a finer mix of brutality and co-optation) or as a true revolution that brings down the Islamic Republic.

The latter is improbable but, for the first time in 30 years, not impossible. Imagine the repercussions. It would mark a decisive blow to Islamist radicalism, of which Iran today is not just standard-bearer and model, but financier and arms supplier. It would do to Islamism what the collapse of the Soviet Union did to communism — leave it forever spent and discredited.

In the region, it would launch a second Arab spring. The first in 2005 — the expulsion of Syria from Lebanon, the first elections in Iraq and early liberalization in the Gulf states and Egypt — was aborted by a fierce counterattack from the forces of repression and reaction, led and funded by Iran.

Now, with Hezbollah having lost elections in Lebanon and with Iraq establishing the institutions of a young democracy, the fall of the Islamist dictatorship in Iran would have an electric and contagious effect. The exception — Iraq and Lebanon — becomes the rule. Democracy becomes the wave. Syria becomes isolated; Hezbollah and Hamas, patronless. The entire trajectory of the region is reversed.

All hangs in the balance. The Khamenei regime is deciding whether to do a Tiananmen. And what side is the Obama administration taking? None. Except for the desire that this "vigorous debate" (press secretary Robert Gibbs's disgraceful euphemism) over election "irregularities" not stand in the way of U.S.-Iranian engagement on nuclear weapons.

Even from the narrow perspective of the nuclear issue, the administration's geopolitical calculus is absurd. There is zero chance that any such talks will denuclearize Iran. On Monday, President Ahmadinejad declared yet again that the nuclear "file is shut, forever." The only hope for a resolution of the nuclear question is regime change, which (if the successor regime were as moderate as pre-Khomeini Iran) might either stop the program, or make it manageable and nonthreatening.

That's our fundamental interest. And our fundamental values demand that America stand with demonstrators opposing a regime that is the antithesis of all we believe.

And where is our president? Afraid of "meddling." Afraid to take sides between the head-breaking, women-shackling exporters of terror — and the people in the street yearning to breathe free. This from a president who fancies himself the restorer of America's moral standing in the world.

[sixdogsmom]

You noticed that too Diane? Hmmmmmm-------

[Catwoman]

Very realistically speaking, O can't take a stand in this...If he does so, the Iranian ruling party will seize upon that to substantiate the claim that the US, Britain, and other are meddling in Iranian election procedures/etc.  As long as the Allies stay the heck out of this, then it is all to obvious that such claims are nonsense and the full weight of responsibility will still remain with the ruling party.

[Varmit]

Diane, he was critized for "globe trotting" on an apology tour that he had no business going on in the first place.  I wonder how he can proclaim that America believes in freedom and tolerance and morals yet offer no help for those fighting for those very beliefs. 

[Varmit]

At first, political pressure to have a recount by independent sources.  While providing various resources to the citizens who want freedom.

[Warph]

A recount would be useless and probably more harmful to the revolution that is going on now.  In all probability, Ahmadinejad won the election.  Independent polls that were done before the election had him way ahead with Mousavi a distant second. 

[Anmar]

As of June 16th, the Iranian government had announced they are going to do a recount and hear challenges.  They have a system and it seems to be working, i guess.  Too much media trying to make a big deal over something thats not really there.  They need to focus more on independant reporting instead of copying eachother and sensationalizing everything.

[Warph]

As of June 16th, the Iranian government had announced they are going to do a recount and hear challenges.  They have a system and it seems to be working, i guess.  Too much media trying to make a big deal over something thats not really there.  They need to focus more on independant reporting instead of copying eachother and sensationalizing everything.

Iran Will Not Annul Election Results
By Edward Yeranian
Cairo
23 June 2009

Iran's Guardian Council has ruled out annulling the disputed June 12 presidential election. Opposition supporters are also calling for a general strike, Tuesday.

Iranian media reported Tuesday that the nation's powerful Guardian Council has said it will not annul the results of the nation's disputed presidential election, saying there were no major polling irregularities.

The council spokesman Abbas Ali Kadkhodaei says that in the presidential election they witnessed no major fraud or breech and therefore there is no possibility of an annulment taking place.

He added that most complaints centered around irregularities before the election, and not during or after the vote.

Irregularities did not affect result

On Monday, the council had conceded there had been voting irregularities in 50 districts, including local vote counts that exceeded the number of eligible voters.

However, it said they were not enough to affect the overall result and incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had indeed won by a landslide.

Defeated candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi, who is now leading the opposition movement, has called the election a fraud and is demanding that a new one be held.

Mousavi working on general strike plan

Mr. Mousavi's Facebook Web page says that his supporters are "working on a general strike plan."

Meanwhile, the Iranian Foreign Ministry is denying that Tehran is planning to recall its ambassador to Great Britain.

Parliament speaker Ali Larijani called for a "re-evaluation of ties with Britain," during a speech to parliament, Monday. Iran has accused Britain, France and Germany of instigating violence during recent opposition demonstrations.

Moscow backs Iran

In Moscow, the Russian foreign ministry says on its Web site that it backs the results of Iran's presidential election, calling disputes over the results an "internal matter," that should be "settled in strict compliance with Iran's Constitution and law."

On the streets of central Tehran Monday, witnesses to a demonstration said Iranian police used tear gas to disperse the hundreds of opposition protesters rallying at Haft-e-Tir Square.

Other reports say that opposition supporters continued to chant "allahu akbar," from rooftops across Tehran, overnight, in a sign that support for the opposition movement is not abating.

More arrests Monday

Further arrests were reported Monday and amateur videos show demonstrators being shackled and dragged away by heavily armed riot police.

The Iranian news agency IRNA is also quoting Ebrahim Raisi, a top judiciary official, as saying that those arrested amid the recent unrest will be "dealt with in a way that will teach them a lesson."