Violence in Iran

<p>Here are some images of the violence in Teheran: http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2009/06/irans_disputed_election.html</p>

<p>Compelling work.</p>

<p>A police state is one where the people fear the government.<br>

A free state is one where the government fears the people.</p>

<p>The latter seems to be happening in Iran, just not enough or fast enough. </p>

<p>Interesting pictures, but they show essentially one side of the story--that of the urban elite classes protesting the election results--and whether the elections actually were fraudulent is still in question. It's entirely plausible that the rural areas did swing the vote that strongly, and I support the general call for an investigation without taking sides in what is, after all, an internal matter.</p>

<p>More significant is the very strong feeling shown by the indigenous elite classes against a theocracy that is rooted in Arab rather than Persian culture. This looks like the struggle of Eastern European countries to free themselves from puppet governments imposed by the Soviet Bloc. I hope the outcome for Iran will be a unified society with a law and custom rooted in its own heritage, independent of both Western and Arab influences.</p>

<p>Charles, it's a good point. The majority of Iran's population live in the country, and there are no cameras there. </p>

<p>A couple of intelligent comments here already.<br>

What seems to be continually overlooked in all the commenting on Iran by the politicians and media are a couple of extremely important episodes in recent Iranian history.</p>

<p>Firstly, in 1953 western governments (the "usual suspects") actively participated in the overthrow of the Iranian government which, even if it wasn't perfect, was elected in a reasonably democratic way, and which had the interests of the Iranian nation in mind. The reason? Control of oil supplies. The rationalisation? The danger of Iranians becoming COMMIES! They needed to be protected from themselves. The replacement was a kleptocracy of pseudo-aristocrats who faithfully implemented western interests in return for unlimited plunder. I wonder why this led to a revolution? Very puzzling.</p>

<p>Then, in the 1980s, partly because of western pique about the Iranian revolution, and the humiliations it piled on the western governments involved with the previous regime, these governments then were complicit in allowing a neighbouring country, Iraq, and its current western "ally" Saddam Hussein, to invade Iran and unleash a war that culminated in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Iranians. And of course vast numbers of Iraqis. Worse than complicit, we also actively supplied intelligence to Saddam to improve his chances of success in this endeavour. Fortunately he was not successful.</p>

<p>Is it any wonder that so many of the the Iranians don't trust us? Isn't it amazing that so many of them DO trust us and want to participate in international exchanges again? Is it any wonder that they may (MAY) be planning to build a nuclear weapon? Given their history, and the fact that their neighbours Israel (in contravention of international conventions and denied to this day; ask poor Mordechai Vanunu) and Pakistan ("friend of the west" and the greatest source of nuclear weapons proliferation in history: oh yeah, and an almost-failed jihadi state too) have deliverable nuclear weapons, is it impossible to understand why Iranians would like nuclear weapons? Not to mention Afghanistan on their doorstep. Of course Ahmedinajad is a ****, and the theocracy is repellent, but most Iranians want the same things as all of us; and eventually they'll get them.</p>

<p>Meanwhile western commentators, politicians and media are standing on the sidelines cheering on the protests. Even before actually knowing WHO won the elections. My own guess FWIW is that Ahmedinajad really did win AND the election was rigged (to pre-empt a second round of voting and the consequent western media feeding frenzy).</p>

<p>There has been a lot of memorialising about the Tiananmen Square massacres recently. Remember that? Where the western media stood around cheering on the democracy protesters who, encouraged by the completely incorrect assumption that they had effective support from us, attempted to persuade army units to mutiny. Think about it. Which country's governments are likely to act calmly as they contemplate a potential army mutiny?</p>

<p>We need to think very carefully about the way we respond to events in countries like Iran. More carefully than we ever have in the past.</p>