News

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I am afraid

Khar magas,

However I find some of these radical "green" zealotry, appalling. I
hope these so called "green" extremist, opportunists don't succeed in
setting up our hamvatans against each other. 

I am afraid, the more I read the more I am convinced that your statement above is not only true. The Greens have been highjacked!!!!

I will not be surprised at all to see a civil war in Iran. One can easily connect the dots as to who really wins when Iranians start killing each other en mass and when they on the sidelines.

I guess we will hear later in response "democracy has its price" !

People talk to their

People talk to their neighbours and try to change their mind. Something that is happening and something that you don't want to happen. People know how to live with their neighbours. They don't need guidance from failed intellectuals.

The role of political message -if well intentioned- is not to deprive Iranian people from freedom of expression. Obviously being well intentioned is not in Afrasiabi agenda... nor the usual folks in this site.

Kharmagas jan, mekhlesim!

ghorboone shoma.

very well said Q

You could not have said it better. As you are aware I did not vote for Ahmadinejad because of my strong ideological and less strong political disagreements with him. Additionally at this juncture I consider progressive patriotic greens such as Dr. Sahimi and yourself as the best alternative. However I find some of these radical "green" zealotry, appalling. I hope these so called "green" extremist, opportunists don't succeed in setting up our hamvatans against each other.

##best regards

people are quick to sound self righteous and judgemental

duplicate

people are quick to sound self righteous and judgemental

this is really one of the least attractive features of Iranian culture.

Without the slightest shame, people are ready to persecute and punish others for simply having a different take on the events. How does that make you different than hardliner statists?

I don't fully agree with Afrasiabi either, being that I'm anti Ahmadinejad and believe there was serious irregularities in the election process. It should have gone to a run-off, and would have absent oany illegal interference by the hardliners. But we can't pretend ther aren't millions of GOOD Iranians who see this differently. He has some excellent point in this article.

From the usual attack-dogs I didn't expect any different, just the usual character assassination and name calling. But from Shifteh whom I thought has been somewhat objective in her news recommendations I expected better.

What we need is reconciliation and working for the demands along the lines that the real Greens have already published, not more antagonism and hostility.

Unlike you people, Iranians have to live with their neighbors and co-workers.

Kaveh Afrasiabi

I have no respect for Kaveh Afrasiabi as a scholar and as an analyst.  I believe ANYONE who watched innocent, unarmed, and peaceful protesters get beaten and murdered in broad day light and chose to go on and participate in discussions as an "expert," defending IRI's actions and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's fraudulent election to office is nothing but a traitor to Iran and Iranians.

History will judge harshly and will not forgive those who provided support and defense to the violators of human rights.

Vildemose

I do find CASMII people very shady characters.

Afrasiabi is one those

Afrasiabi is one those people who should be brought up to charges in the court of International law for being an accessory to crimes against humanity pepetrated by the IRI.

Afrasiabi is an old, vindictive curmudgeon who will stop at nothing to destroy Iranian freedom movement.

funky

funky notion?

Aghazadeh Maiser, what's at stake for your family if the regime is toppled?

I get your point

But im not sure you got mine. If some country is couped with US hands in play, US apologists keep silent, no matter how substancial evidence there is to prove the meddling. But when its convenient for thos same and lets say the mainstream media, they keep barking no matter how little evidence there is for the matter. You cant bark your way to more freedom and democracy, not in Iran and not anywhere else. The funky notion that "IRI's time is up" is a wishful thinking in my opinion.

maiser

And there is a human catastrophe right now in Haiti, with an unbelievable proportion. Yet we are not discussing it here either do we? What can be more important than this? by any standard?

We are not discussing it because we are Iranian and we discuss Iranian matters. But since you are fairly new here, just for the record, I should say that I am one of few on this site who believed Ahamadinejad would have won the election with real numbers. Fraud in this election was nothing new and nothing different from fraud in all IRI elections... and fraud in the conception of what constitutes 'election' in that regime. Fraud in this election was mismanaged spectacularly that's all.

Now this was my evaluation during the election not the aftermath. The aftermath was a social phenomenon independent from the so called election process in IRI. If you trust your 20 million majority, there was no harm in doing another election to avoid the crisis. The problem is, those 20 million votes were votes of convenience for a specific situation. They were not the vote of confidence for Ahmadinejad. So another election, even with usual fraud, will not give the same result.

But these are all semantics if we don't put them in the perspective that I want secular democracy for my country, so these election shows are completely irrelevant to me, and you don't want freedom of speech for your country, based on which and freedom of political activities, a democratic election can be achieved.

So we simply don't want the same thing. You want to keep IRI, I want to replace it with freedom.

I call it barking, because the time of IRI is up. And those who still try to defend it in a 'rational' way, are enemies of freedom of expression and they can no longer use their freedom of expression to kill it. They can only bark. 

Well, in a similar

Well, in a similar comparison, 100% of Georgians voted for Sakaasjvili. I dont see you, the mainstream media, or US and European politicians barking over that. Instead, you bark over alleged voting fraud in Iran without substansial proof. I wonder why...?

Well maiser, %99 of Iraqis

Well maiser, %99 of Iraqis also used to vote for Saddaam. If we don't clarify what 'voting' means, the rest of this discussion is useless. And this is exactly what likes of Afrasiabi are banking on. That's what I call barking.

//www.huffingtonpost.com/kaveh-l-afrasiabi-ph...

Who is barking, really? All

Who is barking, really? All i see on this site, with a few exceptions, is barking that is about getting rid of a government that over 20 million Iranians voted for.

You are welcome Sargord Pirouz.

Don't attribute the

Don't attribute the bankrupcy of 'reform' movement to its leaders. Bankruptcy is in reformability of IRI. Bankruptcy is in you Mr. Afrasiabi.

Now bark all you want! The looser is you.

good article Maiser

Among Iranian analysts Mr. Afrasiabi's articles and Dr. Sahimi's articles are very well worth reading. I hope patriotic and progressive greens (such as Dr. Sahimi) continue to separate their way from the "radical" greens specially those foreign controlled greens (Sazegara, Makhmalbaf, Karim aghaa ghaaltaagh, ... etc.).

Outstanding essay by K. Afrasiabi

Thanks for posting, maiser.