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Mass Arrests of Journalists Follow Iran Elections
I Don't Believe in Imaginary Property writes "Reporters Without Borders is alarmed by the fact that no less than 23 journalists have been arrested in Iran in the week following the elections, making Iran one of the most dangerous places in the world to be a journalist. Online activists are trying to counter this trend by giving advice for helping Iranian protesters. One problem is that Iranian leaders are trying to delegitimize the reform movement by pretending that the reformers are puppets of foreign powers, so special discretion is required for anyone wanting to help the Iranian people."
Could you please fuck off and learn something about Iran before posting your tripe? Iran had a secular, educated, healthy middle class. The West deposed it in favour of the short-term convenience of a theocracy.
[FUCK BETA]
One problem is that Iranian leaders are trying to delegitimize the reform movement by pretending that they're puppets of foreign powers.
(Mod this down again, if you want; I'm going to keep making this argument until someone finally has the spine to actually respond to me)
The only problem with this is, that's fairly likely exactly what the reform movement genuinely is. Is anyone honestly going to try and tell me with a straight face that the reform movement would not have CIA agents within its' ranks?
Truthfully, if I'd been the leader of the Chinese government at the time of Tienanmen Square, the first thing I would have done would be to broadcast a message announcing that if all of the American intelligence people were to come forward out of the crowd and give themselves up, none of the actual university students would be harmed.
This is the single main reason why this entire issue (Iran, currently) is pissing me off to the degree that it is.
Americans want to get involved purely because they still view their role as being to solve the political and/or moral problems of everyone else on the planet. The only problem is that George W. Bush eloquently proved (even if none of your earlier leaders did) that you don't have the ability to solve your own problems. A tyrant and a murderer held office as the President for eight years, and virtually none of you did anything to challenge him.
Because of this, any desire you might have to be involved with the current turmoil in Iraq has exactly zero moral credibility. You let a tyrant hold office in your own country, but you still think that you have a moral imperative to help remove tyrants from other people's.
You are not rightfully the planet's police force, Americans. The only reason why any of you think that, is because you've been brainwashed to think it by your country's education system. I'm aware, however, that nobody who is capable of truly rational thought will respond to that statement, since nobody who is capable of rational thought actually believes in the exceptionalist global police idea.
The current regime in Iran might well genuinely need to be removed, but if you want to truly do the right thing where another country is concerned, for once, then back off and let the Iranian people figure out how to do that for themselves. Don't get involved, because apart from anything else, you are not on record as having intervened in a single foreign country, (except, maybe, during WW2) where it actually worked out well, for either you, or the other country involved. Vietnam was a mess, and Iraq largely has been both times. Do you really think Iran won't be?
Let the Iranian people sort it out. Don't sell them arms, don't try and escalate things either way, and pull your damn spooks out if they are there. (And of course, they would be at this point, even if they weren't earlier)
Any new government, in order for it to be legitimate, will have to be something that the Iranian people have devised for themselves, and if there is a tyranny that needs to be removed, Iranian blood needs to be shed to remove it. That is the only way that the Iranian people will see any future democratic system as being genuine or meaning something, and it is the only way that they will be able to retain dignity throughout and after the process, as well; because it will mean that they will have cleaned up their own mess, which is an essential part of being an adult.
Just stop interfering.
At least Kathrine Harris is not involved in the Iranian election. She is bad enough with make-up, could you imagine her without it?