From an earlier posted blog, is that video from Iranian state TV? That would be quite a change from the earlier blackout of information wouldn't it?
The thing you ignore is that there is no democracy to support across the arab world. Democracy does not mean the freedom to vote a lunatic for the office : much more meaningful is a system of checks and controls to make sure the power earned in elections is not misused and the incumbents will give it up if the voters so choose. A system which no arab country has. It's pointless to ask "support democracy" through elections, if the first concern of the newly-elected leaders would be to pull out a Chavez to make sure they stay in office, for instance. If US could be sure those new leaders will freely submit to the democratic process, they wouldn't concern themselves with them, simply because they would not last in power. Besides hatred of US, Israel and religious fanaticism, there is nothing about those guys and they will be voted out after their first term for sheer incompetence. PS : Iran could have had very good relationships with US if Khomeiny hadn't done everything in his power to piss America off.
The BBC's Jon Leyne, in Tehran, says Monday's rally was the biggest demonstration in the Islamic republic's 30-year history and described it as a "political earthquake".
Our friendship with the current regime doesn't have anything to do with KSA refusing to let women drive or vote.
Well, there are two ways to think about this. Had Mousavi won, its likely that he would not have been able to make too many changes regardless. However, by practically forcing a fraudulent election down the Iranian citizens' throat, the current Iranian regime has told its citizenry to take it or else; its almost forced a confrontation it thinks it can win. Lets see if they're right, because enough popular support may cause far more change in a month to the current system than Mousavi could have in 8 years. Either way, good luck to all the Iranians protesting, hopefully they'll be safe.
Iranian president Mahmud Ahmadinejad has just announced that the results are in and he has won the BigSoccer Iranian election poll by a landslide.
AP estimates hundreds of thousands, and the crowd was 5(!) miles long!: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090615/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_iran_election
According to a radio report from Tehran (I've just listened to), it could be up to 2 million. And this despite the official demonstration ban... Obviously, the situation is escalating. http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/meast/06/15/iran.elections.protests/index.html Reminds me of the revolution in Romania in '89. Apparently, the crowd doesn't get scared by AN's thugs and is ready for confrontation.
You are right, which is why I figured previously that the best that could happen was an end to Iran's nuclear weapons program. Now maybe the anger takes down the whole system and replaces it with, well, I am not sure exactly, but hopefully some thing more demo and less theo.
Shocking pics. http://www.spiegel.de/fotostrecke/fotostrecke-43428.html#backToArticle=630562 This could be the beggining of Khamenei's & AN's end. German tv is just bringing a special broadcast from Tehran.
The situation seems to be very unclear at this moment. Shooting at such a huge crowd is crazy ... but well, what can you expect from a crazy president & his thugs? Obviously they believe they can repeat Tiananmen '89 ... but this will definitely backfire to them! Btw: Here's some impessions of AN's thugs.
Protester killed, and the crowds have turned extremely angry and violent, they're now shouting "I will kill Ahmdinejad" and "I will kill those who killed my brother"! [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uRaBp-OFHlM"]YouTube - Iran election protest ( Tehran - Azadi .sq )[/ame]
Your velvet revolution is dead, and it indeed opened the eyes of those who think Iran can deal with your wicked type. The velvet revolution confirmed the fact that Iran can't trust America and Obama for as long as your ilk keeps America and the rest of the West hostage. That will change too.
There are unconfirmed reports that as many as seven protesters have been killed so far. The situation is escalating rapidly.
I was pretty impressed with the citizen's bravery to demonstrate when I first saw they were doing so ......... after seeing what's going on a tiny bit from links here, I am even more impressed. I hope we have the good sense to remain at a distance and not get too excited and undermine the Iranian population's desire to validate their election results.
The government is leaving threatening voice-mails for the 30+ million mobile cellular phone users in Iran, warning them not to participate in any "illegal" demonstrations.