Have you noticed the new spin coming from the dinosaur left? The new talking point is that the Iran uprising is a “civil rights movement” . Which, of course, implies that people really don’t want the IRI to go, they just want it “tweaked” a little bit…you know, like replacing Ahmadinejad with Mohsen Rezaii. This is while the brave young Iranians inside Iran are burning pictures of Khamenei on the streets and chanting “marg bar Khamenei”.
Coming to think of it, it’s actually pretty clever. The spin is coming from the self proclaimed intellectuals who live in the West (ironically, of course). This way, they can detach themselves from the IRI, and somehow claim that this is their “independent” conclusion. What they don’t make clear for the audience, especially the non-Iranian audience, and the intentional and unintentional short memory Iranians, is that most of these fossils were the instigators of the failed 1979 experiment that turned Iran into a medieval theocracy. See, if they accept the fact that the masses of Iranians on the streets don’t want the IRI anymore, they will essentially have to admit defeat. They have to admit that they were wrong in rushing into a devastating experiment back in 1979, and in embracing Khomeini. And trust me, folks, this bunch will never admit that it’s wrong. You will probably have a better chance of being hit over the head with a meteor as you get of your car tonight than seeing Hamid Dabashi admit that he may have made a mistake in 1979.
Plus, these mini-Trotskys are still fighting the great battle with capitalist imperialists in their tiny little heads. To them, ANYTHING is better than a government in Iran that may be friendly with the West. People shot on the street? OK. People raped in prisons? What’s your point? A military theocracy ruling the country? So? At least we can go to bed at night knowing that earlier that day a bunch of bused in and paid “arazel va obash” chanted Death to America at Friday prayers. That will show those imperialists!
So, go ahead you cloaked apologists and spin it. Call it a “civil rights movement” like you called Khomeini “rahbar” and “Imam”. Seeing what we see today of the brave Iranian youth, I doubt that anyone will buy your nonsense this time around.
