War on the streets of Tehran

Posted By Blake Hounshell Saturday, June 20, 2009 - 6:43 PM Share

From the scattered, fragmented reports coming out of Tehran today, it seems the Iranian regime was successfully able to prevent demonstrators from assembling en masse. Riot police, like the ones shown above (who may also be Rrevolutionary Guards in riot gear) beat back or tear-gassed the protestors in the streets. In some cases, like that of this woman shown here (warning: graphic), demonstrators were shot in cold blood. It looked a lot like chaos.

U.S. President Barack Obama released a statement calling on the Iranian government to "stop all violent and unjust actions against its own people."

"Martin Luther King once said," he continued, "'The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.' I believe that. The international community believes that. And right now, we are bearing witness to the Iranian peoples’ belief in that truth, and we will continue to bear witness."

It's hard to tell who has the upper hand, but it seems like there are still plenty of people willing to beat, maim, even kill their fellow Iranians. That's bad news for the good guys. Roger Cohen, the New York Times columnist who's in Tehran, tells of a police commander who pleaded with demonstrators to go home because, "I have children, I have a wife, I don’t want to beat people." From what I can glean from Twitter and various reporting, the regular police aren't quite as eager to beat heads, in contrast with the hard-line Revolutionary Guard and basij militiamen. If we start seeing cracks in those forces, or the regular army, then the regime will really be in trouble. But it will take sustained pressure -- more demonstrations, strikes, and smart politics -- to get there.

As for Mir Hossain Mousavi, the unlikely leader of this uprising, he has reportedly declared his readiness to become a martyr and sent a letter to the Guardian Council demanding a new election. In it, he sounds reluctant to admit that he's past the point of achieving redress through the system. All he seeks, he says, is the restoration of the Islamic Republic -- not its destruction. That makes sense for political reasons, since he needs as broad a coalition as possible and can't afford to alienate potential conservative supporters. He's still hoping to attract the support of the clergy, who could lend his movement enormous weight.

But the clear implication of Mousavi's actions is that he no longer sees the supreme leader as the legitimate, unquestioned ruler of Iran. I'm sure an increasing number of Iranians feel the same way, even if the regime ultimately beats them into submission as we watch helplessly, glued to our monitors. And that will spell the end of the Islamic Republic in the long run.

AFP/Getty Images

EXPLORE:IRAN
 

USAMA2

1:09 AM ET

June 21, 2009

Journalism has given way to

Journalism has given way to wishful thinking and political rants. Trying to reenforce your own faith in 'democracy' and 'capitalism'?
Its been almost 20 years since American led democracy has ruled without serious ideological challenge, 8 years since 9/11/01, and global poverty appears to be increasing, a massive global financial meltdown has occurred leading to 100s of billions of dollars invested in US markets vanishing. Western and American corporate giants continue to advance in their domination global markets in oil, gas, grain, beef, while food crises remain, and billions live on less than 3 dollars a day.

Why dont you report how Ahmedinejad signed the IPI pipeline deal with Zardari in May 29 09 and how that plan could jeopardize America's decade long effort of accessing the Caspian with the TAPI line? Why not mention how IPI serves as a counterweight to America's Neo Con regional primacy plan?
Why not mention that the CIA have been supporting instability in Iran since 2007, including supporting militant insurgent groups in Northwest Iran and in southwest Iran's Balochi region. The Balochi region in neighboring Pakistan is also the location of the Gwadar port, the pivotal Chinese built deep sea port finished in spring of 09 set to provide China access to the Persian Gulf.

The Iranian election is trumpetted as a call for democratic revolution, but the REAL cause is American geo strategic domination. American access to the Caspian sea basin as well as Iran's oil would serve to solidify American global primacy for decades to come, perhaps insuring the 21st century is the American century as the Neo Con cabal have desired (Project for a New American Century being a think tank that Cheney Rumsfeld Wolfowitz and the American Enterprise Institute supported to determine Bush foreign policy).
Sy Hersh and others have reported how the Neo Cons have made DOD DOS CIA to support Iranian instability since at least 2007.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/06/29/seymour-hersh-exposes-new_n_109818.html

Why is the Foreign Policy mag silent on this and accepting the media hype today? Because you like to hear people sing Americaphilia ?

 

SAAD KHAN

2:41 AM ET

June 21, 2009

FP is doing the right thing

I can't understand why many Muslims think of the western media as enemies. They are just stating the facts. Facts, which of course, are quite hard to digest by common Muslims. America has to safeguard its interest in the region. It is the same country that has given billions to Pakistanis that they have wasted, thanks to corrupt regimes.
http://proamericanmuslims.wordpress.com/

 

JIM BURROWS AKA BRONS

1:21 PM ET

June 21, 2009

The (current) Supreme Leader isn't the The Islamic Republic

I think that the declaration of the impending doom of the Islamic Republic is Western-centric wishful thinking.

The people in the street are chanting "All?hu Akbar" and "Where is my vote". They are specifically calling for an honest and principled Islamic Republic. The leaders of the opposition, men like Mousavi, Rafsanjani, and Montazeri have all been tied to the revolution from the start and to the Islamic Republic. Their disagreement with Kh?mene’i and Ahmadinejad is over who should fill the roles of President and Leader of the Revolution.

Mousavi was a conservative a couple of decades ago and has only gradually shifted to a reformist stance. You may take his play to be one of seeking personal power or of moving his nation onto what he sees as the right path, depending upon your level of cynicism, but whichever way you view him, his claim that he wants to restore, not destroy the Islamic Republic is completely in keeping with his past and his actions.

In many ways the current (relatively) peaceful and religiously grounded approach with its nightly call of
All?hu Akbar from the roof tops, the street gatherings in the name of the dead and so on is completely in keeping with the history of the Islamic revolution.

Musavi is looking to replace the President and behind the scenes there seems to be a struggle over who will succeed Kh?mene’i. Who fills either role is not at all the same thing as the Islamic Republic.

I just do not see the reason to forecast the end of the Islamic Republic.

President Obama seems to recognize this in his declaration of the hope that Islamic Republic of Iran will take its rightful place in the community of nations, and in his recent stressing of the importance of Justice in the affair of the Iranian election. What we should be hoping for is not the collapse of the Islamic Republic, but in a change of leadership within it to one that can deal with America on terms of mutual respect.

 

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