you have exercised some catharsis. do you know what catharsis means? of course ye know everything. on dv you have freedom of speech and freedom of self-image. hope you feel better soon!

or, can he, with help from west, also end the priestly rule? tnx

Reaganite Republican said: “Well, he can bow, kiss his ring, and call him “Supreme Leader” all he wants… but these blood-soaked tyrants are laughing at Obambi. It doesn’t matter what Obama says to the Mullahs now… they lost all respect for him when he started sending them adoring fan mail. They know this smiley plastic mannequin isn’t going to do anything.”

I’ll cut to the chase: you’re a fucking idiot and a worthless hypocrite. You, a Reagan supporter, bemoans the rulers in Iran for being “blood soaked” tyrants, while proudly labelling yourself in the image of a president who imposed on Central America an orgy of torture and killing. This is almost too sick to even contemplate. The reform movement in Iran has consistently asked that Washington tone down its threats, because these threats only embolden the jailers, who can then turn to the excuse that all dissent is simply the product of Western interference. It seems that you’re not actually overly concerned with what happens to Iranians, only with how you can use them to bolster your own snivelling, conniving self-righteousness. This self-righteousness is bought with the blood of Iranians. What you actually can’t stand isn’t repression per se, but defiance by another regime. You and the mullahs are really two sides of the same coin: fanatical ideology.

And what “respect” are you talking about? The respect that they had for Bush? Yeah, that’s a good one. After Bush set the region on fire, after he destabilised the entire Middle East and left a mess in Iraq and Afghanistan from which neither country may ever recover, rest assured that the regime in Iran were already laughing at you. Heck, I’d be laughing at you. It’s an expression of imperial arrogance to think that the Iranian people want Washington’s help on anything. After people like you imposed dictatorship on them, encouraged and armed Saddam Hussein to wage war on them, imposed sanctions on them, and are now hypocritically concerned about “human rights and democracy” (while chumming around with the dictators in Riyadh and Cairo), you expect them to “look towards” you? The Iranian people don’t give a FUCK about you, and that’s regardless of whether they’re for a hardline Islamic republic or for secular democracy. People like you have absolutely no credibility anymore and are totally irrelevant. You’re like a fly that hangs around on a hot day. The best that Washington could do for human rights and freedom in Iran is to halt ALL threats, pay massive reparations to the Iranian people for the brutal crimes you’ve perpetrated against them, and to leave the nation to Iranians. Apart from that, eat my dick. And fuck everyone like you.

I appreciate the acknowledgments and yes I wholeheartedly agree with Max’s analysis on Iran as well. But your observation regarding the splintering of the Left on this issue is quite telling and once again dishearteningly shows how retarded solidarity is on the Left. Such splintering is reminiscent of the anti-war movement on 2003. If the Left can be easily splintered on this issue it demonstrates how difficult it’s going to be to challenge the system alongside specious “allies”.

The “Left’s” take on this issue reveals why ordinary folks cannot trust the Left to be on their side in any long term struggle.

To Deadbeat especially for remembering Norman Solomon’s anti-Nader/anti-Independent Candidate stance in 2004. NS is the War Party’s last line of defense, a guy who carefully builds credibility as a “left journalist” so that he can be trotted out in situations where the hegemonic fraction of the ruling class needs a shill.

Here’s my personal take on the Iran election flap: having spent more time than I should have participating in US electoral politics has made me aware of just how expert the US ruling class has become at manipulating the electoral process. Elections under the ground rules of “bourgeois democracy” is a game of skill similar to high-stakes poker. Both are “serious”, “hardball” games with winners and losers. Both a “player’s” skill and a player’s quantity of resources are vitally important.

The US State has big advantages in both departments compared to what can be marshalled by parties/movements in most other countries, so if the US/Israel/UK -led State Apparatus can coax a target country into holding an election according to US-style rules, you know who is going to win. US-style rules of course allow for maximum pro-US legal and not so legal intervention in the process.

However when such intervention is forestalled by institutions in place or popular movements in the target country, the outcome is less predictable as we see in Venezuela and now Iran.

Jumping to the chase, my take on Mousavi: it’s clear to me that Rafsanjani sees the chance to join “Globalization” as his best opportunity to maximize his present billions. (Definition of Globalization: The Highest Stage of Imperialism”:) Mousavi is his ace political salesman, who has sold the susceptible sector of the Iranian populace on the idea that if only they’ll let Rafsanjani privatize the now-publicly owned petroleum reserves, they’ll be able to join “the First World” and enjoy life just like middleclass Europeans and USians.

Yes life under the Mullahs is undoubtedly stifling for bright young students & graduates, just as many bright young people in the former USSR felt stifled by the pre-Yelstin regime. Only the names & faces have changed, the Koolaid is the same.

It would seem that at least for now Rafsanjani/Mousavi & Co along with their “Western” allies have lost this round. But said “western allies” have achieved at least one thing in the process: “Left” or/and “Progressive”, even the Anti-Zionist movements around the world and esp. here in the US have splintered badly over this issue. Some I’d thought of as my best political allies have gone the other way. Bummer.

The US has been working to undermine the regime for some time. One can not simply dismiss the post election revolts as a spontaneous call for reform. Behind this is regime change. The US tried the same with no effect in Iraq before trumping up WMD pretexts for the invasion and occupation.

Iran does not exist outside the context of the geopolitical dynamics driven by the US/Israel menace. Again, that doesn’t mean there aren’t people who simply want a more open society; but like is the case in these matters, what ever there is of that is simply being played to make the changes the US wants short of an invasion. How much of the internal striff is of a piece remains to be seen. How much is a fundamental power struggle which is not so “pure” in motives will require time to decipher.

we have such a situation now in iran. The difference btwn iran and US is in the fact that no land wld dare to interfere in amer domestic business but many lands, including US, interfere to quite a degree in iranian affairs.

an US gov’t can interfere or make things worse for a disliked country because of many factors. One factor is that amers have been isolated to quite a degree from the world- deliberately so; so that amers have less empathy or human feelings for any people from which they have been alienated by entertainment industry, schooling, media reports, and clero-political discourse.

thus the ruling class in US has a much freer hand in meting out punishing raids, invasions, blockades, sanction, etc. tnx

The goons and squads of murders and torturers US support, the proxy wars us promotes and funds is replete through much of US history.

And yet, we are to “believe” that one of the targets of US state enemies – Iran – is not also the target of intentional attempts to undermine the Iranian regime?

Are there complaints, legimate complaints against this Iranian regime? Like all regimes, for sure. But that these were not provoked and sustained by outside interests stretches credibility to the utmost.

stuff your leftist radicals…..Chavez us quite right…your leftists should be ashamed at being duped by the MSM!!

Show us proof of vote fraud..as for th crackdown for once i agree with kissinger:

Page 189 of Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein, we find Kissinger, in 1989 refering to Tianamnen saying the following:

‘No govt in the world would have tolerated having thr main square of its capital occupied for 8 weeks by tens of thousands of demonstrators…A crakdown was therefore inevitable’

Yes, Max…you are quite right….

No Chavez warmth is real…theres noi evidence of a ‘enemy of my enemy ‘ twaddle, any more than there is of vote fraud.

‘As voting began in Iran on June 12, Chavez praised Ahmadinejad as “a courageous fighter for the Islamic Revolution, the defense of the Third World, and in the struggle against imperialism.”

Nine days later, with a bloody crackdown on Iranian protesters gaining momentum, Chavez declared that “Ahmadinejad’s triumph was a triumph all the way.” The Venezuelan president condemned those “trying to stain Ahmadinejad’s triumph and through that weaken the government and the Islamic revolution.’

Chavez is right again…you may like to see what Kissinger said back in 1989:

‘Page 189 of Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein, we find Kissinger, in 1989 refering to Tianamnen saying the following:

‘No govt in the world would have tolerated having thr main square of its capital occupied for 8 weeks by tens of thousands of demonstrators…A crakdown was therefore inevitable’

‘But that admiration is no reason to be quiet when Chavez makes common cause with repression in Iran.’

he isnt, hes making common cause with Ahmadinejad…dont confuse the two.

‘For good measure, Chavez ascribed the protests in Iran to Washington and its allies. “He said protests and violence that have rocked Iran since the contested vote appear part of a recurring strategy by U.S. and European intelligence agencies to destabilize enemy governments.” Chavez declared: “From my point of view, that’s what’s happening in Iran.”’

Yes, Chavez is right…thats exactly whats happening…with a shah apparent waiting in the wings.

‘It seems to be beyond the vision of both Hugo Chavez and John McCain to see that vast numbers of Iranian people, fed up with repression, are able to grasp the historical moment on their own while opposing the regime. The last thing they need or want is “help” from the U.S. government as they struggle for a democratic future.’

what ever s norman talking about???? Iran has just had ELECTIONS, which were more democractic than any in the US! One candidate won: Ahmadinejad..the other than cried ‘fraud’ and began post-election violence.,..which was followed by the crackdown!