Iranians may be ready to vote Ahmadinejad out of power

There's rumors that the UN is weighing what it can do.

Spencer Ackerman chimes in on why the US (and the rest of the world)needs to keep quite for now. The US doesn't exactly have a track record of best intentions and this uprising needs to come from within.

http://attackerman.firedoglake.com/...d-dont-follow-and-instead-get-out-of-the-way/

 

I'd like you to understand that it is not only the freedom that is suppressed by the Iran governemnt. It is much much more than that.

Now I simply do not have the right choice of word to express what more it is about.

But one thing that I care about a lot is that the current regime has really tainted the grand culture of Iran. A lot of Iranians are extremely pround of their Persian Culture that has existed over 2000+ years.

So it is not only about not being able to hold your gf or bf hand in the street. That is only a small problem compared to the big picture.

 

I seriously doubt there is anything the UN or the U.S. can do to "help" at this point. The whole world has proven quite impotent in the face of Iran's nuclearization and meddling in other Middle Eastern country's affairs. It is difficult to try and force a country like Iran with its large population, abundance of natural wealth and strong defenses into anything really. The Iranians know they can get away with pretty much whatever at this point.

 

Thanks for the pics...It seems I missed a lot in a day.

 

I think one of the positives from this movement has been a rethinking of how to approach countries like Iran. Sanctioning Iran before the last election for example (an aggressive move to head off Ahmadinajad) only emboldened him and generated more support. Sanctions on Iran have only hurt the Iranian people and have allowed the Iranian government a nice little tool to galvanize support against the US and for the regime.

Foreign meddling with Iran has been counterproductive in so many ways. It's possible to have a diplomatically strong position on nuclear weapons while not engaging in the absurd rhetoric that the Bush administration put on over the last 8 years.

It appears the Obama administration has learned from this (well hopefully anyway).

The world isn't "impotent" instead the world has simply been boneheaded in so many ways into thinking strong-arming Iran would do anything except embolden the Iranian government. Our black and white view of the world for the past 8 years has been dreadful and hopefully some more nuance to our thinking on foreign policy will develop.

 

Then change truly does need to come from within.

here's hoping

 

I am not really even sure if public display of affection is a human right or not, but yeah it is funny that is what some choose to focus on when there are much more important factors at play. Maybe it is just the symbolism of it.

Hey, I for one would like to have the right to grope my girlfriend in public, but the oppressive government in Austin forbids me from doing so

 

According to numerous blogs and twitters out there, non-Persian militia are being brought in to patrol the streets as there are not enough Persian police trusted enough to quell the riots. Most likely Hezbollah mercenaries from Lebanon. Sounds like a pretty stupid move on the regimes part, if true. Take this with a grain of salt as this info comes from unconfirmed sources and could be disinformation.

On another note, I've always thought twitter as being pretty stupid, but its amazing to see how its being used by the Iranians to spread information while the regime cracks down on reformist and foreign media.

 

Amazing footage.......

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/06/13/iran-demonstrations-viole_n_215189.html

 

If you go to the guy on youtube who's hosting those, there's a lot more video. Pretty amazing to see.

http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=amirpix&view=videos

 

There now. This is unreal. I really feel for the people in Iran that are not intimidated by what happened. Good for them but god help them.

 

It certainly appears like a horrible sham of an election.

There is possibly a silver lining. The people seem to realize they've cheated. They're upset about it. I hope this can spark a process that will bring about positive change from the Iranian people.

 

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On the rooftops in Tehran, people sounding out into the night “God is Great,” the same chant that sparked the revolution in 1979, only now with a decidedly different subtext.

 

Everything I'm seeing and reading suggests we're in the beginning stages of a mass uprising. There are unconfirmed rumors that the Clerics are divided, that the army is staying neutral, that protests are growing, etc.

If this does grow from protest to uprising, this would be the first attempted revolution in any relevant country during the mass-media age. It will be amazing to watch things unfold over the next few days.

 

I am a cynic, and I feel that nothing happens.

 

This is actually kinda sad. I was watching Amanpour (an ethnic Iranian) on CNN this morning and she was mentioning how much freedom and vigorous debate Iranians enjoyed leading up to the elections. She seemed to be in awe of such openness in Iran, and now in the post-election period you have this atmosphere of student led riots in Tehran. Ironically enough, it is perhaps those very same freedoms and high expectations Iranians had prior to the elections that led them to be so disappointed and shocked in the post-election period, and made some of them feel compelled to express those outbursts of emotions in such a public way.

 

Agreed, I'll believe it when it happens. There's so little reason to be optimistic about change in Iran judging from history.

 

Here is the video of the interview

<script src="http://i.cdn.turner.com/cnn/.element/js/2.0/video/evp/module.js?loc=dom&vid=/video/bestoftv/2009/06/14/gps.amanpour.from.iran.cnn" type="text/javascript"></script><noscript>Embedded video from <a href="http://www.cnn.com/video">CNN Video</a></noscript>

 

I am hearing whispers of Hezbollah on the streets right now.

 

I am getting two views of Iran: The State view and the Student view.

They're two very different views.