[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pKUZuv6_bus[/youtube]
My understanding is that Persian culture reveres poetry. If this doesn’t cause a lump to form in your throat, maybe nothing will.
(Props to HuffPo.)
UPDATE 10:16 AM Sat. June 20–There are disheartening accounts from the BBC and elsewhere of protesters being shot and beaten. On an intellectual level I understand why Barack Obama needed to play things close to the vest.
On an emotional level it’s beyond appalling what is happening in Iran.
You’re very right, Jon. Andrew Sullivan has been posting Persian poetry for several days now, and it’s damn good. I’m not much for poetry myself, but even the English translations are pretty moving.
The is nothing the US can do to change Iran, but Iran WILL change. The reason is that the population consists of so many people under 30 that have technological savvy and want to have a higher standard of living not offered by the current theocracy in Iran. The 1979 Islamic Revolution means about as much to Iran’s young people as the Spanish Inquisition means to a US first-grader.
If you want to change Iran, keep the channels of communication open, particularly channels like the Internet and all its attendant sub-channels of communication. As the young people catch on that they’re being forced to live the the Seventh Century by a bunch of out-of-touch religious zealots, those young folks will bring about tremendous change. All the US has to do is keep the lines of communication open and wait. It’ll happen: Iran will change for the better. They may not be our friends, but they’ll certainly be less of an enemy.
re 2: Yeah! When they get out from under, maybe global corporations can make some deals with their elite and have them all working 12 hrs. a day for pennies an hr.
I’m inspired by your hopes!
According to the latest news reports, the authorities have started beating and water hosing, and possibly shooting at, the crowds.
The moment of truth is very near. Either the protesters knuckle under to violent repression, or they fight back. If enough decide to fight, and millions more resist, the regime will fall.
Beautiful, too beautiful A Muslim “Kol-Nidre,” an Iranian “Battle Hymn of the Republic.”
cross posted at SJ.
Absolutely beautiful and moving.
Yes, it sounds like the moment of truth is coming this weekend. This is almost a moment for a George Washington of Persia to emerge. I may even find myself praying for it to happen.
I know this is off topic but I wanted to give Roger Rabbit a heads up.
Oregon woman obsessed with rabbits arrested again
Apparently she crossed state lines. So you can walk the streets safely again now that she is behind bars.
At anyrate, yeah I agree with Roger that this is the moment of truth in Iran. Whether the people will fight back. My sense is that the crowds are quite sophisticated. There has been a careful attempt it seems to avoid wreckless violence, and various efforts to see the police as merely pawns in the larger game. the anger is not with the police but with the regime itself. The movement is waiting for a clear response of repression. I think the elites understand if they go too far it is the end of their rule. It is fascinating to watch the delicate dance and tension happen in real time.
DONT CALL ME LIZ!!!!!!1111111ELEVENONE….
Remember how Arafat warned the world he will destroy Israel “on the wombs of our women” and Palestine went on the have a birthrate of over 7 per woman, intentionally breeding future terrorists into the abject poverty and hopelessness.
As Politically Incorrect pointed out, Iran may eventually change due to technology and a huge under 30 population. But there are also millions of future terrorists in poverty their too.
Negotiating with Islamic extremists will not work. It will backfire and be the end of Obamunism.
I wonder how frightened the terrorists of Iran, North Korea, Taliban are of the perpetually “concerned” Obama?????????
Try NOT AT ALL!
Obama can act concerned all he wants…it has zero impact on behavior.
Our Chief Apologist is a laughing stock of the terrorist world.
When, as Biden warned us, Obama is tested (btw, he is currently being “tested” and failing miserably) with an attack on our soil…ALL Obama’s political capital will evaporate.
WShere is the antiWar movement. MORE VALUABLE THAN THE PRESIDENT NOW WOULD BE MASS, WORLD WIDE DEONSTRATIONS.
@7 Thank the Great Mother Rabbit Spirit they caught that monster! But just wait, some bleeding-heart judge will let her out on bail, so she can kidnap and kill more rabbits! Since casualties are inevitable, I’d better get to work making more rabbits!
It’s an awful video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bbdEf0QRsLM
KliniKlynuts Klown @9, 10 — You’d love to get your paws on the nuclear codes, wouldn’t you? Your tired old wingnut eyes have never seen a problem you didn’t want to “solve” with a mushroom cloud.
Iran’s robed kleptocrats are looting their country and stashing money in foreign banks against the day they get run out of town by angry mobs, just like other dictators all over the world.
” …[T]he Tehran-based Shahab News reported that the chief auditing office of the Iranian parliament (Majlis) has revealed that close to $35 billion of oil income from the financial year 2006-07 is missing. According to Iranian law, this money should have been paid by the government of President Ahmadinejad into Iran’s central bank. … [T]he new investigation shows that the government never paid the money into the central bank, and no one knows what has happened to it.”
http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/m.....e-coffers/
@9,
I think it’s a mistake to lump together Palestinians with Iranians. My experience with Iranians is that they don’t particularly have a favorable opinion of Palestinians and, indeed, consider “Arabs” to be inferior to “Persians.” We, in the West, may not see or understand all there is to know about the inter-racial/inter-tribal, religious, and ethnic tensions between Arabs, Persians, Turks, Kurds, etc., regardless of the fact that all are Muslims.
15 Kind of like King County and their recent audit only its millions unaccounted for.
Cynical
Iran has 66 million people. Tell us exactly how many of them are terrorists, and show your wok.
11. SJ spews:
Good question….where IS the anti-war movement???
However, the President of the Free World is supposed to be a leader. Expressing “concern” repeatedly is not leadership.
How many Iranians will die on Obama’s watch before Obama is more than concerned?
Will Obama sit back and watch the Iranian protestors be beaten & killed…missing an opportunity at regime change??
The “millions” of Iranians in the street is now down to “thousands”.
They looked for help…and got “concern”.
Obama is missing a great opportunity.
The possible outcomes in Iran are a little bit more varied than “Iranian government brutal repression wins” or “Noble freedom-loving Iranians overthrow theocracy.”
For one thing, the regime could make significant concessions to the public in return for their acquiesence to the continued rule by the current rulers.
But revolutions are dangerous times, and rarely do they turn out as one imagines. “The people” are a mass without real leeaders or power structures. If you think that the Ayatollah Khomeini’s former Prime Minister Mousavi represents a new direction, I’ve got a bridge in Fremont to sell you.
11 CYnical
Yes, we should invade Iran and kill 100,000 people. Then they’ll love us. And the oil money would pay for it, right? What could possibly go wrong?
Mr. Klynical @10 seems to be hoping for an attack on American soil so Republicans can score a political point or two. heh- What’s a few thousand American dead so long as Mr. Klynical’s Republicans get to regain power?
tons of pictures and videos on Mir Hossein Mousavi’s facebook page:
http://www.facebook.com/mousavi?ref=mf
Some of the videos are rather graphic. There is no doubt that people are being killed.
The rightwingnut idiots like Klyncal and Krauthhammer are calling for Obama to “denounce” Iran.
The fools forget that that is what Bush did and the election of Ahmadinejad went silently into the night.
Even now, the “Supreme leader” is looking to blame the amercian interventionists…only it is working now. Obama has made overtures to Muslims and is not the jingoistic fool that Bush was. Bush was all bluster and no results. Everything he did backfired – including the stupid axis of evil speech and then the invasion of a non-threatening country (Iraq) right on the border of Iran.
No, Obama has played it right – let the Iranian people decide. Any American interference would give legitimacy to the clerics scapegoatin gof the US and Britain. The people don’t believe the Supreme leader – and a good part of the reason is they really can’t blame the US. Yes, in the past our CIA put in the Shah – but this is not the US, this is the clerics screwing over the popular vote. Everyone in Iran can see that.
We have to deal with WHOEVER is in power at the end of this. People can march all they want, but the hard reality is that a government that takes a hard line and sticks to it, when their security forces remain with them and do not defect to the opposition, pretty much always wins.
We don’t have good intel right now on what’s going on in there, but so far it hasn’t sounded much like the security forces are giving way or puutting down their weapons.
obama on iran “freedom to protest and speech must be protected”
(except in america where the tea party protesters were just hateful rednecks)
26 MOT
Yes, I remember that harsh federal crackdown on teabaggers. Hundreds dead and wounded wasn’t it?
Yes, put upon white male Republicans in this country are just like Iranians. Except for the virulent racism.
DONT CALL ME LIZ! Dont you know I work for Baghdad Jim! Just treat me like the self centered wack progressive that I am, and call me ELIZABETH! and leave out the ma’am too!
“Baghdad Jim” was right and Republicans were (and are) wrong.
“The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”
Republicans should remember this.
You’re a birther, aren’t you, Cynical?
@29
Baghdad Jim was, and is, a traitorous fool.
Taking money from an agent of a foreign power to speak out against the US in that country. He should have been removed from office for that, if not prosecuted. 150 years ago, he would have been hung.
bush is out of office.
What’s the point of protesting now?
Cyn,
The Twitter feeds coming out of Iran have been supportive of Obama and asking us to shut the Right (McCain got a few shout outs) up.
@26
Nobody stopped the Tea Parties. They got lots of press. Their websites didn’t get shut down.
@16: Politically Incorrect
Good point. The Iranians arenot Arabs (and they will tell you that, but they do have a small Arab minority). They are also Shia and the enemies of the Taliban. They also have supported Hezbollah and other extremists…. very complicated. Regime change in Iran would be a game changer…especially if it comes from within.
34. Michael spews:
Gee Michael–
You are a fool!!
Give me your sources.
Obama should have publicly denounced the evil ones when there were millions in the street.
I never said invade Iran.
But Obama being “concerned” did nothing to give protestors in the street confidence.
Obama blew it.
Pelletizer $35 Billion missing in Iran? It went to Hezbollah, Hamas, Moqtada Al-Sadr and the Taliban. Whackminojob did the clerics bidding and now they are figgering it out?
Psst #38, Iran hates the Taliban. Pass it on.
Iran reflects a complex culture. With some mighty deep roots. They were the ones who finally stopped Rome and its descendants. That particular war did last over a 1000 years. Islam and Arabic power were in a sense, a byproduct of that conflict.
It would be good to see them reenter the international stage as a semi-rational power.
Though there isn’t really much difference between the candidates from what I’ve heard, with regard to international policies.
Regardless, and for what its worth, I wish the Iranian people the best. Repression is staring at them with exposed canines. The people have been and will continue to be exposed to violence from their government. So its hard to be oppimistic, but nobody can say they don’t have the grit to push back.
LMFAO….Oblama blew his wad “fighting” 3 pirates.
@22 “Mr. Klynical @10 seems to be hoping for an attack on American soil”
Yep, that’s the GOP party line these days. If you read rightwing blogs (like Stefan’s, for example), you’ll see comments like this. E.g., from Stefan’s pathetic little anti-American blog comes this gem posted by Republican Legislative Candidate Mark Griswold:
“Congratulations Speaker Pelosi, now let the bombs fall where they may. My prediction: terror attack on domestic soil passenger aircraft within the next six months. Casualties in the 2-300 range. And, unfortunately, maybe that’s just what we need. It’s obvious people don’t remember what happened 5 years ago. Posted by FullContactPolitics at November 8, 2006 10:52 AM”
http://blog.usefulwork.com/cgi.....ry_id=7430
@26 Now that you mention it, yes, the teabaggers were hateful rednecks. And, I might add, lying sacks of shit.
P.S., Don’t blame me for what they are; I’m just reporting the facts, I don’t create the facts.
@32 “150 years ago, he would have been hung.”
I doubt it. Conservative rednecks were too busy lynching Negroes 150 years ago to concern themselves with someone like McDermott.
@35 Don’t confuse them with facts, Michael. Victimhood is very important to righties. It’s the only thing they have left, and only a meanie would take it away from them.
@37 How exactly do you expect President Obama to give Iranian protesters “confidence”? Confidence in what, that we’ll come to their rescue if things get out of hand? Exactly what do you think would change the mullahs’ behavior short of a military invasion? Mere words?
No, KlyniklyKonfabulatedKlown, you’re playing games. The game is called, “Criticize Obama no matter what he does.” The other trolls on this blog play it. All wingnuts play it. You play it. You guys just like to hear yourselves talk. So much so, that you don’t realize everyone else long ago stopped listening to you. You have no audience except yourselves. How sad.
@40 Here’s a perfect example of what I just said in #45. The Obama administration pulled off a picture-perfect hostage rescue under difficult circumstances, and here we have a wingnut belittling it, simply because he likes to hear himself talk. Hint: Brainless comments like this go a long way toward destroying what little credibility Republicans have left, so please keep it up!!!
At least we all know that Oblama can nut-up and take on three Somali pirates….hahahaha, what a tough guy.