It is really mind boggling to see some intelligent people talk in gloating or complacent tones about the travesty that has happened in Iran over the past 72 hours. I am heartsick to read that some people actually believe we must prepare for the next four years for the results of this sham election. I am also glad that those inside Iran are not taking directions from anyone on Iranian.com, to boycott the elections, to vote for the criminal idiot Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, or to now accept as final the fate others have sealed for them. They know why they voted, for whom they voted, and why the rigged election results are unbearable for them. The gunman who pointed and fired at those people today, also, knows whom he is shooting and why. When dialogue between a state and its citizens is closed down for 30 years, when fear reigns, and when people feel helpless with the direction their government is taking them, there comes a moment when no conventional negotiation method, no mediation, no threats, and not even bullets really work.
A friend once told me “There’s no problem if people lie to others; the problem starts when they start believing their own lies.” Iranians are no dummies. They wouldn’t believe the state run media’s silly 24/7 propaganda, occasionally echoed on this site, about how proud ALL Iranians are of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s reckless rhetoric and foreign policy, or that nuclear energy is their inalienable right; we see now, rather,that they believe their right to vote this power-crazed idiot out of the office is their inalienable right. They would come out and give all they have to THIS inalienable right to prove it, too.
As for the gentlemen in Tehran, they have now shown their true face to all inside Iran. Mr. Khamenei’s little contingency plan here has been backfiring on them since they started putting it into action. The original plan was to cheat by about five to seven million votes, something that IRGC (Sepaah Pasdaraan) had done once before in the 2005 elections. The problem was that when they came to implementing their contingency plan, they realized that Khamenei’s favorite candidate could not win even with such generous subsidy in his votes. They went to Plan B and made up the entire election results, getting their candidate in the office again, and doing away with the votes altogether. I assume they had anticipated a bit of turbulence, but nothing in the size and depth of the anger their decision would bring Iranian people.
The last vestige of a republic, of IRI’s having a semblance of a democracy, or that the people of Iran count for anything in the eyes of despotic megalomaniacs in Iran was dissolved through this clumsy and desperate decision. A face off with the Iranian nation is the least of IRI’s troubles now. Whether they shoot every one of those people on the streets and regain power and go on to rule as they did before, or the Iranian nation surpasses and puts them aside once and for all after 30 years of tyranny and ruthless governance is something only time will tell. But one thing is certain–Iranians have already shown Ali Khamenei what they think of him and his pet candidate and his cronies.
As for Mahmoud Chakhan, he has stayed true to his sad and sorry character by lying and cheating all the way through his first term, through the elections, and now through what seems to be the bitter end.
Photo from gooya.com shows a victime of today’s shootout by Basij forces during Monday’s street protests.
