“What you’re seeing is the result of 30 years of pressure and strangling,” said Hossein Rahmati, a 68-year-old carpet seller who was wearing an old-fashioned 1980s suit to attend the march. “Iran is like a dam about to burst.”
And to be fair and balanced:
But across the capital, a few miles to the south, it was a very different rallying cry. Batol Mojahedi, 55, a housewife, stood with one hand holding her black hijab, the other a poster of the supreme leader, Seyed Ali Khamenei.
“My son was martyred in the Iran-Iraq war. I don’t want to lose our Islam. We did not participate in 1979, in the revolution, to have this kind of freedom that Mousavi supporters claim that they want.
“I’m opposed to this kind of freedom. We don’t want the freedom they want. Ahmadinejad is a courageous president. There was not any rigging in Friday’s election. What’s happening now is just [being influenced] by foreigners.”
So who is spreading the idea that an officially approved candidate is the pawn of foreigners? Take one big guess:
State-run television focused on just one side of the city’s realities, broadcasting lingering images of fires raging uncontrollably and urging citizens to take to the streets to deal with “inciters”.
“It’s shocking that these louts are responding in this way to our presidential elections,” said one unnamed man interviewed on state-run TV, referring to the Mousavi camp.
“This nation will protect and defend its revolution in any way,” Gholam Ali Haddad Adel, a prominent politician and supporter of the president, declared as leaflets accusing Mousavi of being a vessel for foreign ambitions were being distributed.
we’re just twittering fools. How could we foreigners be dangerous?
And naturally, foreign policy “luminaries” like John McCain want us to walk right into that trap and prove to the Iranians that Mousavi is America’s puppet.
Yes. He and Mike Pence.
Damn, why must they be so friggin’ dense! Why must we keep screwing everything up? Why this stupid need to AGAIN meddle in Iranian affairs? Haven’t we done enough? This ain’t about us, as crazy as that sounds. It’s like an itch they can’t scratch. Just shut up, already!
Both of them need to sit down and seriously STFU. Idiots.
He’s not the opnly GOP idiot. Maddow last night has a whole list of them who have made similar statements.
The bigger picture. What you are seeing is the realignment of alliances in Central Asia.
Ahmedinejad went to Russia for the meeting of a mutual security pact called the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. Even if Mousavi becomes president, he will also be going to summits of this group.
These are the countries in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization: China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan.
Iran, Pakistan, Mongolia, India, and Taiwan are currently “observer states”.
The group is in dialogue with Sri Lanka and Belarus.
Guest attendees are Afghanistan, ASEAN, and CIS.
So who is missing? Turkmenistan, Ukraine, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Bangladesh to name the nearest ones.
It looks for all the world like a frontline-state conference about Afghanistan (with emphasis on US and European activities in Central Asia).
So it is not just from Russia that Ahmedinejad is seeking recognition of his re-election. He is also picking up the support of China, India, …maybe even Pakistan. Or if not support, just being there adds to his legitimacy from the perspective of the international community.
And no doubt Russia sees this evolving mutual security organization as the counter-NATO.
I would point out that isn’t Ahmadi still president? The election doesn’t instantly replace the guy does it? He is still legally the president until the inauguration.
Yep, that is correct. But my bigger point has to do with the long-term impact of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. It is a mutual security (defense) pact. And Ahmedinejad’s Iran is in the position that the Baltic Republics were relative to NATO when Russia was very concerned.
I didn’t realize that the GOP had a presence in Tehran.
ROTFLMAO
Ahmadinejad v Gore?
I give that woman credit, she is willing to openly oppose cultural liberalism.