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This Is Not Going Away

June 17th, 2009 by Kevin

Arguably the biggest news item is whatever is happening in Iran.  Things are sketchy to be sure, but at the very least some very large demonstrations are happening over there.  Originally they started over the botched election fraud.  As if we really expected legitimate elections from Iran.  But either way that\’s where it started and that\’s where most of the reporting has been aimed.

However, if this list of demands has any truth to it, this is not something that\’s going to go away.

The Seven-Point Manifesto calls for:

1. Stripping Ayatollah Khamenei of his supreme leadership position because of his unfairness. Fairness is a requirement of a supreme leader.

2. Stripping Ahmadinejad of the presidency, due to his unlawful act of maintaining the position illegally.

3. Transferring temporary supreme leadership position to Ayatollah Hussein-Ali Montazery until the formation of a committee to reevaluate and adjust Iran’s constitution.

4. Recognizing Mir Hossein Mousavi as the rightfully elected president of the people.

5. Formation of a new government by President Mousavi and preparation for the implementation of new constitutional amendments.

6. Unconditional release of all political prisoners regardless of ideology or party platform.

7. Dissolution of all organizations — both secret and public — designed for the oppression of the Iranian people, such as the Gasht Ershad (Iranian morality police).

Even if the mullahs overturn the election results and kick Ima Dinner Jacket out of office, this uprising may not be satisfied.  This list doesn\’t even have to represent the demands of this crowd.  If these are even the unspoken desires of the crowd, kicking Dinner Jacket out of office may just embolden them to take the next step.  On the other hand if Ima Dinner Jacket is confirmed as the winner, it\’s just gonna piss the crowd off more.

This appears to be a movement that\’s not going to go away overnite.  Whether it\’ll amount to anything is another question entirely.  And I think it revolves around the Revolutionary Guard.  They\’re the best equiped military organization in the country and without a doubt whomever has control over the RG has everyone else at the point of a gun.  They are supposedly controlled by the mullahs, but one of the Presidential opponents was a long time general of the Revolutionary Guard.  The RG may very well decided to sit this out and let the mullahs fend for themselves.

The Iranian government was a fairly stable setup, at least as far as oppressive governments go.  There weren\’t too many ways that it was going to be threatened.   The Mullahs seem to have found the perfect storm of circumstances and made what should have been almost impossible, increasingly likely.

It\’s time to cheer the Iranians on.  If only we had a President whose balls hadn\’t been planted in the White House garden by the First Lady.  I\’m not sure the Iranians can wait until fall for her to harvest them.

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