The anti-Khameni protests in Iran are still continuing with 250 university factulty signing a statement telling the Ayatollah that he is not God’s representative on Earth. The professors are standing behind the reformers in trying to alter the theocracy into a more democratic state.
It seems increasingly likely that Iran as we now know it will be gone in a relatively short amount of time. Like Eastern Europe in the 1990’s there is a wave of freedom moving across the Middle East, and the other authoritarian governments that continue to terrorize and oppress the region will be swept away in it.
Wave of freedom moving across the Middle East? Are you on crack? It’s gonna take alot more than 250 Iranian professors protesting to topple cultures who’ve known nothing but brutal and fundamentalist rule for centuries. Our difficulties in making the “liberated” Iraqis see things our way is indicative of a “wave” that will never reach shore. It’ll take much more than neoconservative optimism to turn these nations into little Americas.
The 250 professors are just the tip of the iceburg. The theocracy in Iran is losing power to democratic reformers. Before, anyone criticizing Khameni would have been arrested or even executed. Now, the government’s power is much less than it was before.
This is exactly how the governments of Eastern Europe transitioned from communist authoritarianism to democracy. An astute student of history would see unmistakable similarities between then and now.
Mark,
Were you one of those people who was nattering about what a disaster Rejkjavik was until two years after the Berlin Wall fell?
Just curious.
Mitch, I was 11 years old when the Berlin Wall fell, so I can safely I admit I was not “nattering about what a disaster Reykhavik was.” Whatever the case, comparing Central and Eastern Europe under Communism to the present-day Middle East is a classic case of apples being compared to oranges. There wasn’t much doubt that the majority of residents of Soviet-bloc nations would welcome the fall of Communism, but Iran is not Poland. Iran was trending in the direction of Western values in 1978. How’d that turn out for them anyway? And why should we suspect the same fundamentalist power brokers won’t respond in kind if the theocracy is at risk once again?
The only way to achieve that is by embracing the neoconservative ideology of the US serving as the world’s nanny, which will simply divert the peasants hatred to America instead of the theocracy. It would be ideal to suspect that thousands of years of brutal totalitarian religious rule in the Middle East would simply go away because some Iranian professors are taking to the streets, but the complexity of the region’s deep-rooted values and disparate, fragmented ethnic groups make the prospect seem all but impossible at any point in the near future. Certainly we should continue to try, but simplistic rhetorical connections to the Berlin Wall tumbling down definitely don’t add to an intelligent discussion on the issue.
As bad as the analogy might be I believe Jay is mearly trying to express some optimism in positive change in the one middle eastern country that really DOES have a good reason to hate us unlike the rest. So long as we’re not trying to overtly meddle, I see no reason not to be.