In this modern day of Twitter, Facebook, and Goggle where individuals are free to exchange, express, and seek out answers to dogma; a country ruled by a theory of “blind obedience” will slowly give way to a more practical style of government; be it a democracy or a component of one. This is not saying that religion will go by the wayside; it will just be separated from the politics of governing. The Supreme leader of Iran said that the recent election was a 'Divine Assessment; evidently not, since millions of Iranians went to the street in protest.
Iran is roughly the size of the United Kingdom, France, Spain and Germany combined with a population of 70 million. Any hopes of diplomacy must be long term because 2/3 of their population is under 30 years old and 70% of that group is pro-western.
The current regime of The Republic of Iran will continue to be ruled by a Supreme Leader; enforced by the secret police and the military but they were forced to accept the need for an inquiry into the recent election. The Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's word and rule was questioned; a sure sign of losing power. The Supreme Leader has to hope the senior clerics do not lose confidence in him. Unless a peaceful resolution can be made with the protesters this regime will have to hold power with military intimidation.
President Obama is trying to undermine the image of “the Great Satan” by trying to reach out to the civilian population of Iran and did so in his inaugural speech, New Year's message, and the recent Cairo speech. America's Neoconservatives are trying to paint this president as being weak, timid, and a cream puff, because he is not using the harsh rhetoric of Ronald “tear down this wall” Reagan. This is the same Neocons that never apologized for the Iraq fiasco. Iran is practically a lone wolf, since it is predominately Shia, while most of the Islamic world is mostly Sunni, so Mr. Obama has the support of many Arab countries; that do not want Iran to have a nuclear weapon.
Some posters lump in Iran with the entire beheading crowd, yet they probably do not know the difference between a Shia and a Sunni (nor do they care) but it is not my job to educate them because they can go, buy the latest issue of Newsweek or watch the coverage of this recent Iranian crisis, if they want to be more knowledgeable. I certainly am not an expert on the Middle East but I trust journalist like Richard Engel and Fareed Zakaria to educate me.
This is my summary from the June 29, 2009 issue of Newsweek where I read the opinions of Jon Meacham and Fareed Zakaria **
Print- •
-
Share
- Share this item
-
Grab the link
Copy and paste the link:
- Blog about it
- Close
- •
-
27 Comments
- •
-
Flag
-
Thank you for your contribution.Flag this as inappropriate
- Close
-
- •
Follow Mike
Comments
"Iran is roughly the size of the United Kingdom, France, Spain and Germany combined with a population of 70 million. . . 2/3 of their population is under 30 years old and 70% of that group is pro-western."
This should be on billboards. Sooner or later the change will happen. Incidentally, this is almost exactly the same information I got from two Iranians I had a chat with a couple of years ago, one of whom has reminders of the regime's brutality on his back.
June 25, 2009 at 11:24 p.m.Sigh...........
Just more "Monkey Business" ............
Or "I did not have sexual relations with that woman"
Just because there politicians doesn't mean there not Human Animals.
June 25, 2009 at 6:30 p.m.Dem. or Rep., all of them are human and sometimes fall victim to urges. Heck, if we could, we could ask Marilyn about the tunnel from the treasury building to the white house.
In one of those emails ,Sanford was telling his Argentine friend that he was on McCain’s short list for vice president… So that’s why McCain defaulted to Palin; time was running out. I bet the taxpayers of South Carolina didn’t know they were doing that much business with Argentina….. Let me get this straight; it’s socialist if you take the stimulus money to pay unemployment benefits, but it’s OK to use the tax payers money for a rendezvous…. I would be a terrible conservative; the rules are so confusing.
June 25, 2009 at 4:10 p.m.Ok. That one is totally NOT photoshopped. I wonder if Laura knows...
June 25, 2009 at 4:09 p.m.Holocoaster..lol
June 25, 2009 at 3:58 p.m.Thanks
Mike, I wonder if Rush got his jollies reading the good guv's e-mails with Maria?
June 25, 2009 at 3:56 p.m.Yeah, he left the country on taxpayers' dime.
Sorry. Here's another one pre-spit swap:
http://blog.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2...
June 25, 2009 at 3:53 p.m.for a laugh:
http://www.theonion.com/content/news/...
and be sure to read the last paragraph... ; )
June 25, 2009 at 3:50 p.m.Lucky
June 25, 2009 at 3:40 p.m.Are you kidding me? It’s 98°, that’s not a tan, that would be more like an old retired man roasting..;-)
You guys have too much time on your hands. It's nice and warm outside. How about getting a tan?
Oh, and I got your back Mike. Rollinstone sounds like an idjit.
June 25, 2009 at 3:27 p.m.Yeah that marginalization is a bummer. You can do it but you can't take it - something I would expect from a liberal socialist.
June 25, 2009 at 2:57 p.m."Their signs are in English" is a right wing talking point seen on all the blogs and heard on talk radio...lol.....The.United Kingdom is closer to their situation and Both of them have been blamed for the uprising.
I have been calling for the pullout of the "war of choice" for over 6 years with pride..The American people cemented that in 2006....
You are not being forced to read a blog things that is just really nothing but my opinion....Plenty of right wing blogs for you to enjoy,why bother reading mine;seems like you would have better things to do...Is just to try and marginalize me?
You have a good day because I will enjoy mine by ignoring you....Bye, you take care.
June 25, 2009 at 2:42 p.m.Come on the democrats have been clamoring for a pullout for several years, that is the major reason they won the election. If you remember Obama said that would be job one. Do a little research before you open your mouth.
I doubt the Iranian protesters distrust the USA - their signs are in english. You seem to place a lot of truth in things that are just really nothing but your opinion.
June 25, 2009 at 2:30 p.m.As usual you did not admit you were wrong for blaming Obama for the pullout of Baghdad, I never expected it.
I think the Iranians remember the overthrow of their government in 1953, and a U. S. backed Iraq invasion in 1980 or when our country left Saddam Hussein the helicopters he gassed those we propped up to overthrow him….Iran has a lot of reasons not to trust the U.S. but Barack Obama is one of the reasons….
Smug? And you would describe yourself as?
Partisan, I don’t try to hide it...I never post lies but perhaps I am smug because I expect people to know what they are talking about or at least do a little research.
June 25, 2009 at 2:23 p.m."a partisan blogger like yourself"
Hello pot meet kettle
June 25, 2009 at 2:10 p.m.The surge was opposed by every democrat. I think there was little choice to begin pulling out of Iraq prematurely considering the public pressure mainly from democrats, the liberal press and smug bloggers like yourself.
I know it gives you a big pain in the a$$ to concede that anything positive could have been gained by the war but I still think it inspired the Iranians to try and throw off their oppressors.
The outcome in Iraq is again questionable because violence is again rising there. There will be no political solution without first having security.
The danger here is that we will have to go back and do this all over again. That sucks whether you are a Republican, Independent, Democrat or a partisan blogger like yourself.
June 25, 2009 at 2:06 p.m.Vet
I thought you would enjoy this…Ed Schultz won’t have room for all of this is in his “Psycho talk” segment….My conservative friends are not going to last the next 3 ½ years…lol
Good old Michelle Bachmann is saying that she will not fill out her Census form because ACORN might use the information and give it to Obama like “it was handed over to the FBI and other organizations, at the request of President Roosevelt, and that’s how the Japanese were rounded up and put into the internment camps. I’m not saying that’s what the Administration is planning to do.”..Oh that’s a disqualifier
Then Rush is telling his ditto heads that “Mark Sanford as just a guy fed up with "the country's going to Hell in a hand basket" under Obama, and fled the country "to enjoy life."
I wonder if Mr. Sanford’s wife would believe that?... These conservatives just can’t say they are wrong.
I would say it’s the heat but this has been going on; mmm let’s see, maybe since Jan 20, 2009.
June 25, 2009 at 2:03 p.m.You will never hear that from the lips of General Petraeus..It is only conservatives that think we won in Iraq,of course they only see the military component...The politcal mess is still there;in fact they just had a bombing the other day.
That "winning"phrase went out with the losing administration.
June 25, 2009 at 1:31 p.m.That's photoshopped
June 25, 2009 at 1:29 p.m.Here's a better one, Mike. Yuck!!
http://media.photobucket.com/image/re...
June 25, 2009 at 1:27 p.m.I know this blog is about Iran, but will someone please wake me up when we've "won" the Iraq debacle.
"What a waste of all that blood, time, and treasure." Indeed.
BTW, where is Cheney:
http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/0...
And then:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/politico/2009...
June 25, 2009 at 1:24 p.m.Vet
June 25, 2009 at 1:18 p.m.I could not cut & paste your "realclearword" link or get to it in your post..
It’s funny how the loyal Bushies will try to rewrite history to elevate the status of the failed president by placing the blame on Obama…Oh, only if posters would read some books, newspapers, or some sort of research material before posting.
The U.S.-Iraq Status of Forces Agreement (official name: "Agreement Between the United States of America and the Republic of Iraq On the Withdrawal of United States Forces from Iraq and the Organization of Their Activities during Their Temporary Presence in Iraq") is a status of forces agreement (SOFA) approved by the Iraqi government in late 2008 between Iraq and the United States. It establishes that U.S. combat forces will withdraw from Iraqi cities by June 30, 2009
2http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strategic_Framework_Agreement009
The 2006 elections is when Bush recognized that his Iraq strategy was failing and he had to fire the one of the main culprits..Rumsfeld.
BTW The preliminary work for the so-called “surge “ started months in advance by bribing the Shia to join our side in driving out al Qaeda..It was called the Awakening
Awakening movements in Iraq are coalitions between tribal Sheikhs in a particular province in Iraq that unite to maintain security. The movement started among Sunni tribes in Anbar Province in 2005 to become an ad-hoc armed force across the country in less than a year.
[1]
The awakening fighters in Iraq have been credited by some analysts with reducing levels of violence in the areas in which they operate;
[
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Awakenin...
But this blog was about the current condition in Iran not a Kudos to Bush one.
June 25, 2009 at 1:08 p.m.http://littlegreenfootballs.com/artic...
June 25, 2009 at 12:37 p.m.You have to wonder how much inspiration the people of Iran have gained from seeing the freedoms won in Iraq. Bush to his credit finally recognized that his Iraq strategy was failing and he adopted the counter insurgency strategy recommended by General Petraeus.
The key to winning in Iraq was to provide security to the people particularly in Baghdad, This meant putting more troops on the ground to provide around the clock security. It also meant not killing or abusing the citizens. The "Surge" did this. Now Obama is reversing this strategy and going back to putting American units back in isolated fortifications - I'm almost certain this has made Petraeus ill. What a waste of all that blood, time, and treasure.
June 25, 2009 at 12:33 p.m.http://www.realclearworld.com/blog/ho......
June 25, 2009 at 12:32 p.m.How many red blooded Americans, old and wise enough not to be suckin' up to Obama's high mighty A-RAB butt, like our fabulous press corps weenies, agree with all the PELOSI Obama has been spreading around the world?
June 25, 2009 at 12:22 p.m.