The long struggle -- Ashura
I may not be posting very much today, but Azarmehr and Andrew Sullivan are putting up reports, pictures, and videos from Iran. So far it's clear that protests are indeed escalating across the country, that the theocracy's agents have responded with the expected harshness and have shot several people, and that the mood is one of rising anger, as expressed in the widely-cited slogan "I will kill, I will kill, those who killed my brother". To a degree not seen before, protesters are meeting violence with violence, burning police cars and beating agents of the regime who fall into their hands.
One striking video from earlier this week shows a furious crowd apparently chasing away security forces and rescuing two men whom they had just hanged in public. The context is unclear.
I feel more confident than ever that the days of this ghastly, evil regime are numbered.
Updates: One source now reports that some police units have refused orders to open fire on demonstrators. If the theocracy cannot depend on its own enforcers, especially with the protests turning so angry, it may be in greater danger than ever before.
Protesters humiliate the regime's Brownshirts.
The MSM are dropping the ball again. Sullivan: "If you want actual news, don't switch cable on. Go to the blogs."
The United States is now taking a stronger stand in support of the Iranian people than it did earlier. Most likely the administration now realizes that, with the protests continuing and getting more violent so long after the stolen election, the uprising is not going to just die down and let the theocracy rule as if it were a normal legitimate government. Things will never "get back to normal" as long as this regime is in power. It is doomed.
One striking video from earlier this week shows a furious crowd apparently chasing away security forces and rescuing two men whom they had just hanged in public. The context is unclear.
I feel more confident than ever that the days of this ghastly, evil regime are numbered.
Updates: One source now reports that some police units have refused orders to open fire on demonstrators. If the theocracy cannot depend on its own enforcers, especially with the protests turning so angry, it may be in greater danger than ever before.
Protesters humiliate the regime's Brownshirts.
The MSM are dropping the ball again. Sullivan: "If you want actual news, don't switch cable on. Go to the blogs."
The United States is now taking a stronger stand in support of the Iranian people than it did earlier. Most likely the administration now realizes that, with the protests continuing and getting more violent so long after the stolen election, the uprising is not going to just die down and let the theocracy rule as if it were a normal legitimate government. Things will never "get back to normal" as long as this regime is in power. It is doomed.
posted by Infidel753 at 4:53 AM
11 Comments:
Very fascinating. You certainly called this one. It seems violence & propaganda on the part of the theocracy is no longer effective. I guess that is what happens when you over do it.
I pray the bloodshed will be limited and I pray for the people in their efforts to overthrow a corrupt government.
As an aside, I can't help but think of all the snivelers in our country. And we think we have it rough.
Rita: The theocracy has made itself so intolerable that people are willing to risk their lives to get rid of it. Once people are pushed that far, there's not much that can be done to intimidate them effectively.
Leslie: I hope the killing does not get as bad as in 1978-1979, but the mullahs will probably try to cling to power any way they can. What I do think may happen is that eventually the Iranian military will step in, sweep away the Islamic Republic, and rule temporarily until a new system can be set up.
Eventually this could end the Ahmedinejad/Khameni regime. I only hope that we or Israel do not do something stupid to give the protesters a reason to support the government.
Hope the Iranian people keep this going but sure don't like the bloodshed.
We need to keep in mind,Iranian demonstrations are not pro-US or anti-Islam.
What they are, is pro-Iranian. They are proud and smart people.
Also young, at least half the population is under 15 years of age and they want the kinds of freedom they see in the West but are not dumb enough to think we are their friends.
Like TomCat wrote, we can just hope the US/Israel don't do something stupid.
Actually we already are, by our continuing threats to the regime's non-existent nuclear weapons program.
We might also consider the Egyptian and Saudi theocracies are far more repressive-yet we not condemn them with anything near the intensity as we condemn Iran which furthers our lack of credibility.
TomCat: So far the administration has limited itself to condemning the repression and not tried to interfere more overtly. I think that's wise.
Karen: As long as the theocracy has been in power there has been bloodshed. All that's changed is that people are fighting back.
Oso: What matters is that the protests are against the current system. There's no reason why being pro- or anti-US should even enter into it at this point. As for Islam, Iran's relationship with islam is complicated. It's going to take a long time to see how that works out.
The Egyptian government is a secular fascist dictatorship with some religious undertones, not a theocracy, and it's certainly not as repressive as the Iranian regime. With Saudi Arabia, you have a point.
If you really think the present regime is not trying to develop nuclear weapons, I'm afraid you're not dealing with reality. Indeed, the nuclear-weapons program is the very reason why the uprising is so important even to countries beyond Iran.
There is still some mileage left in the events in Iran. Marshall Law, curfew and a total crackdown on the Iranian people by whoever has the real power, I'm not sure the Theocracy has grips on everything that has gone on and will continue to go on. Like everywhere, the military hierarchy has a lot of influence.
Infidel,
My bad re: Egypt. I'd meant to use it as an example of a repressive regime and must've got confused.Or something.
re:nuke program,I respectfully disagree. The military would have elements who would want them like all militaries do but so what? I'm sure if Trinidad-Tobago has an army they'd want nukes.
I don't know how their nuclear program is funded, probably not thru military funds cause they don't spend much on that.
The IAEA has no firm evidence of a weapons program despite our putting hella pressure on El Baradei. Far as I know only Iraq had more UN personnel combing the countryside for weapons and it's the same officials claiming Iran has a nuke weapons program as claimed Iraq had WMD so IMO they lack credibility.
Plus the entire nuclear program was condemned as un-Islamic by Khomeini.They revived it for pragmatic reasons but moving from energy to nukes is a tremendous leap.
TomCat: “I only hope that we or Israel do not do something stupid to give the protesters a reason to support the government.”
… Because if the U.S. or Israel did do something stupid, it will anger the Western-leaning young people (i.e. the “Internet generation”) who would rally to the cause of pro patria and reinvigorate the dying regime.
The young people of Iran have little memory of life under the Shah and his dreaded Savak, and even less memory of Mohammed Mossadegh, Iran’s first democratically elected president who was overthrown in a joint British-American inspired coup.
Any intervention on our part will revive these ghosts of history and discredit us forever among all Iranians.
What the Green movement lacks now is a leader who can give it strategy and structure. What will finally bring down the Ahmadinejad/Khamenei government is a call for a general strike. This is what brought Khomeini to power and this is what it will take to close this era.
TomCat: So far the administration has limited itself to condemning the repression and not tried to interfere more overtly. I think that's wise.
I think so too.
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