The Tea Party Revolution in America

Couldn't you easily have done the same thing in regards to the Tea Bagger protests a few months ago, as these people are doing with the Iranian protests?



Yes, there are protests in most major provinces in Iran. At the risk of being accused of moral equivalency, you could say the same thing in the run-up to the war in Iraq, after the [s]election of Bush in 2000, or his election in 2004.

There are reform elements in all of Iran. Even if Ahmadenijad legitimately won a province of 1 million voters by 80%, that still leaves 200,000 potential protesters to show their disdain for the official results.

I really hope these protests can result in some moderate reforms in Iran, I doubt they will, but I hope they do...but lets not delude ourselves into this notion that somehow there is a mass movement nationwide to radically change the status quo in the Islamic Republic of Iran. The vast majority of Iranians support the clerical system to some extent, and there isn't some overwhelming desire outside certain elements in Tehran to liberalize the country. For Islamic countries in that region, they are already more culturally liberal than say in Saudi Arabia or Afghanistan.

There is still no real evidence beyond some statistical analysis that Mousavi won the election a few weeks ago. "But high turnout should mean the reform candidate wins!" Yeah, I remember hearing that high turnout would be the key to Kerry's victory...guess what, 2004 was the highest turnout election up to that point, and afterward Bush had more popular votes than any candidate in history (up to that point).

I'm just rather concerned that the drumbeat in the press and the blind acceptance of this idea of a popular uprising in Iran is going to lead to a foreign policy that ultimately harms our national interest in the long run. You've already got neo-cons like Joe Lieberman and others itching for a battle royale in Persia, and these protests (whose numbers represent a small fraction of the overall Iranian public) are helping shape the debate in their favor.