The End of the Beginning?
foreingpolicy / BY TRITA PARSI, REZA ASLAN | JUNE 26, 20
27-Jun-2009 (7 comments)

Indeed, the post-election demonstrations have neither been an uprising of intellectuals and students nor die-hard anti-regime elements from northern Tehran. Instead, the masses that poured in the streets included large numbers of people who often have been loyal to the Iranian government and who in many ways have a stake in its survival. (We can call them Iran's political middle, or its swing voters.) This is precisely why this movement has constituted such a threat to the Iranian government -- not once since 1979 has such an alliance of Iranians come together.

>>>
recommended by Bavafa

Balatarin
Share/Save/Bookmark

 
Parham

Ostaad

by Parham on Sun Jun 28, 2009 04:59 PM PDT

I'm not your homie, and I'll never be. People like you make me ashamed of being Iranian. That's for one.

For another, weren't those who voted the ones who wanted to have a "peaceful evolution"? So much for that, huh? Isn't what you preached bringing us more oppression now? And, are you saying you knew this is what would happen, so that's why you voted?? Roo ke nist...

So I guess this means you haven't learned your lesson. You haven't learned that you can't deal with these people, that they'll make you bend over at each occasion, that they'll resort to anything to get their way, that they know no compromise, that anything but democracy is useless to ask for. In fact, there IS nothing else but democracy to fight for; no "theocracy light", no "softline pseudo-democratic Islam", no nothing. Those should now be ideas of the past, because you won't get them. If you haven't learned these things, you're in for so many more surprises and a few more broken bones.


  •  
Ostaad

Parham, it's not strange at all, really...

by Ostaad on Sun Jun 28, 2009 04:43 PM PDT

Some like you got polar when you started giving pand-o-andarz to boycott the selection. Looking back on it you must know what being devoid of constructive ideas must feel like. Was your "true" intent to help the people gain their freedoms, by staying zeer-e lahaaf? I wonder, homie.


  •  
IRANdokht

Trita Parsi's response

by IRANdokht on Sat Jun 27, 2009 08:21 PM PDT

When a few people commented on his article, Dr Parsi wrote: 

Friends - thanks for your comments. just a few points:
1. Neither Reza nor I are pessimistic, we are just trying to point out one of dangers the movement is facing that has received little attention
2. We are in no way suggesting that the exiled opposition groups are more damaging overall than the basij itself
3. lastly, i think Reza and I also hope that we are wrong
PS. In DC, i have often times find myself in minority arguing with foreign diplomats as well as US officials that they shouldn't treat the movement as dead

IRANdokht


  •  
Parham

Perhaps not so strange...

by Parham on Sat Jun 27, 2009 06:52 PM PDT

... after all. Opportunism has no boundaries as we've learned even more after the current crisis has shed light on the nature of a lot of people and their true intents. This polarization was very helpful, actually.


  •  
Darius Kadivar

NIAC + IRI = strange bedfellows ... ;0)

by Darius Kadivar on Sat Jun 27, 2009 05:40 PM PDT

To be Continued ...

Follow Debate here :

//iranian.com/main/node/70024

Heureusement que Je ne dors pas encore ...

 

 


  •  
Fred

Leaders in waiting

by Fred on Sat Jun 27, 2009 04:55 PM PDT

The NIAC lobby’s lifetime leader usually mentions how he gets to talk to the insiders in the Islamist republic, the creative writing teacher hints at the same. And since they so obviously do worry that absence of an opposition leader creates a vacuum  the evildoers can take advantage of —it is only logical to appoint the duo as co-leaders in waiting, buy a plane ticket and wait for their call to join them on the freedom flights back home.

 


  •  
Mola Nasredeen

"Exile groups try to hijack the movement..."

by Mola Nasredeen on Sat Jun 27, 2009 04:19 PM PDT

This is an excellent analysis of the opposition movement by those who keep a cool head in the midst of chaos and don't fall in the trap of neocons (Israel's Lobby, Neem Pahlavi, etc). Here is a quote from the article: 

"Exiled opposition groups, whose political agenda sharply differs from that of the protesters in Iran -- indeed, many of these groups urged people not to vote in the elections -- have sought to fill the vacuum left by a beheaded and directionless indigenous movement. Though the outrage of these exiled groups against the Iranian government’s brutal violence is genuine, their efforts to impose themselves on the political scene have caused great frustration among opposition elements inside Iran. At a time when the movement in Iran is paralyzed, efforts by exiled groups -- groups that scorned the protesters only weeks ago for choosing to participate in the elections -- to fill the leadership vacuum are viewed as nothing less than a maneuver to hijack the movement."

Thanks for posting the article.


  •