I've been engrossed with the uprising going on in Iran and have been reading up about it quite a bit. The marches have calmed down for now but it's been ugly over there. Youtube is full of some very disturbing videos taken by people on the street with their cellphones. The violence against the protesters (like the Neda death) has been appalling.
I have never been a fan of Iran's government policies as I don't think building nukes to to blow up Israel (and possibly nice chunk of the US) is really productive. I find Iran's leader, President Ahmadinejad, to be a complete idiot who makes George Bush look worldly and intellectual. However, with all that being said, this nation was rightfully pissed at us for helping install the Shah of Iran. He wasn't a nice guy and was seen as a puppet of the west. So the Iranians revolted and installed their own group of not so nice guys who had religious ideologies consistent with the land and populace back 1979. Here we are in 2009 with a new generation angry at the rigged election and overall state of things. They want a new leader who is not so new. He was part of the not so nice guys who led the revolution 30 years ago.
Mir-Hossein Mousavi, the green revolution candidate, sounds pretty good on paper but he wasn't always warm and fuzzy. Could he have mellowed out? Maybe. Are the protesters, who risked life and limb, ready to turn the page with the west and cool the rhetoric of Ahmadinejad? I don't know but sure hope so. Was Ahmadinejad and the upper echelons of this theocracy ever really speaking for the people of Iran? Not sure, all I hear and see is groups gathering together shouting "Death to America and Israel" whenever a story on Iran is done. Who the hell were those people and why should I give a damn what happens if it's the majority opinion? Was the news too narrow in its scope of coverage? Mousavi still wants the bomb to get made. The government insists it's for peaceful purposes. I don't buy it. And enough already with with the antisemitism, holocaust denial and calls to destroy Israel. You (in the Iranian government) need Israel around so you can blame "the Zionists" when you catch a cold or get a flat tire. You know, it's what you did when this rigged election blew up in your face. You want accountability now? Sounds very strange to me. Not only that, it's why the rest of the world, save for some hate groups, can't take your current regime seriously. Nukes won't change that. The bright promise I see is that the average Iranian is not happy about their damaged reputation globally or the regime's hamfisted approach to things and, more importantly, the scaling back of their rights. I see an opening for great things to happen, but I'd need to know more about the "new" Mousavi before being convinced.
I hope that true change for the better in Iran does take hold. There's some terrible policies over there
that need serious reform. Public hangings and the stoning of women belong in the dark ages. If you have a strong stomach, turn off the content filter on Google image search and type in something like "Iranian women." You'll gasp in horror at the sheer brutality and the photos will haunt you for some time. Yeah there will be some smut pictures mixed in with the results, but you won't be up for it. I'm hoping that beyond the people's desire to have the votes be counted properly, that the will to change these things is also truly part of the package. Or else, this was all sound and fury signifying nothing.
