You all know the history. The Iranian government calls the election for Ahamdinejad before the polls have hardly closed. Iran's Guardian Council reassures the public, amid claims that 170 cities recorded over 100% of the vote, that in actuality only fifty cities exceeded the 100% vote mark.
The Green Revolution begins. So does the crackdown. The death of Neda Soltan. The shooting and beating of other protesters by the Basiji, the regime's religious vigilante Blackshirts who answer only to Khamenei. Ayatollah Ahmed Khatami has called for the protesters'
executions.
The brutal repression, persecution and Stalinist show trials have begun. Dr. Arash Hejazi, who tried to save Neda's life, then fled for his own life to Britain after the Neda video went viral, is now
being hunted by the regime. The HuffPo's
Iran reporting and live-blogging entries, tied to Twitter and other sources in Iran, are piling up with claims of horrendous torture and even the execution of Mousavi protesters imprisoned in the medieval
torture chamber that is Evin.
It would seem such torture, psychological being the
preferred choice for Iranian journalists, is quite effective. Newsweek's Maziar Bahari has already confessed to being a propaganda tool of Western agents. Many others
have confessed in similar Big Brother fashion. No doubt many more will confess as well, perhaps even some of the British embassy employees arrested by the regime last week.
In defiance of the authorities, presidential candidate Mir Houssein Mousavi continues to challenge the election results. The Basiji forces commander has submitted nine charges to the government regarding Mr. Mousavi, including national security violations that carry up to ten years in prison. With the 40-day marking of Neda Soltan's martyrdom approaching, the streets could get very ugly once again.
The British have reacted quite strongly to the government's abduction of their employees and demanded their release, backed up by threats of the EU pulling all of its ambassadors from Iran. In fact, many Western leaders, French president Nikolas Sarkozy in particular, have been vehement in their denunciations of the regime's electoral and respondent human rights violations.
According to Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, imposing sanctions on Iran will be at the forefront of the upcoming G8 meeting, and are expected to top the G8 leaders' agenda. All but one, it would seem: our own president, Barack Obama. In fact, our president showed his support of green Iranian freedom this Fourth of July by
promising to block further financial sanctions of the Iranian government at the upcoming G8 meeting. US officials claim that a tough stance against Iran could backfire.
My question to President Obama and US government officials is this: backfire how? By resulting in an even tougher crackdown on protesters? How is that possible? More missed Fourth of July barbeques by Iranian diplomats? Boo-hoo. Iran refusing to negotiate on its shady nuke program? They've already refused to. In fact, they are even telling the EU to forget about any negotiations until they apologize for their meddling in Iran's pure elections, like the provocations Newsweek's Maziar Bahari and all the protester 'confessors' have already testified to on Iran's State-Run Media.
We have been down this road before. The diplomats of the 1930s League of Nations overlooked every egregious political and human rights violation in Nazi Germany in order to negotiate peace with Hitler, as Obama seeks to with Iran today. It is a hopeless exercise in futility that can come to no good end. Winston Churchill screamed to the skies about Hitler's abominations, yet nobody listened until it was too late.
Consider also the fact that future negotiations with Iran's new Shah, installed by coup leader Khamenei, legitimizes an illegitimate government and spits in the face of Mousavi and all of the green revolutionaries who have died, or now being detained, tortured and perhaps even executed.
Fortunately, much more sensible heads appear to lead today's Europe regarding the Third Reich
of our age. Only Obama and Russia seem to believe in the Chamberlain approach. Yet with the political and financial power each wield at G8, it is unlikely any sanctions would be enacted without their approval.
So, instead of supporting Hope and Change in Iran, it looks like President Obama is advocating more of the Same Old Same Old from Shah Ahmadinejad and Supreme
Asswipe Khamenei. Yet we should be way beyond strong words now. Iran's fascist leadership and government, which I have been reporting on for well over a year, has now been laid bare for all the world to see. It is as ugly and brutal as any on this planet.
Iran should be sanctioned for its heinous and barbaric behavior, not rewarded with diplomatic recognition as an equal partner. In fact, diplomacy only works with the civilized. Based on all I've witnessed, Iran's current coup-installed fascist dictatorship does not qualify. Besides, if the Iranian thugocracy can be so ruthless and brutal to its own innocent children, what does that say about the trustworthiness of any possible diplomatic 'breakthroughs' on the scale of, say, the Munich Agreement of 1938?
We in the West should be doing all we can to undermine the regime in whatever fashion Mousavi and the green revolutionaries request. If they ask us to stay out of it, we stay out of it. If they request technical support, like SAT phones, to bypass the regime's communications blackout, I say we give them whatever they need. If the bloodshed of innocents in Iran mounts to sickening proportions over time, I also would grant any request by the Greenies for whatever weapons they ask for via Afghanistan and Iraq.
But that is getting way ahead of the game. Iran society is in turmoil at every level, from the street to the Majlis to the clergy. This is their revolution. Let them handle it any way they see fit. But what will most definitely not help the Iranian cause of freedom is a vacillating President who can't seem to find it within himself to condemn the Iranian regime, its coup and its bloodshed of innocents with the same force of will as he condemns, say, the government of Honduras'
legal ouster of the power-grabbing Manuel Zelaya.
I stand with the Green Revolution, and Hope and Change in Iran. When will President Obama? If ever?
UPDATE: Iranian Newsweek reporter
Maziar Bahari, a British embassy employee and numerous reform leaders will be charged with "acting against Iran's national security." After forced confessions, of course. Just like with Orwell's 1984 and Roxana Saberi.
This is Stalin and Hitler all over again, persecuting, holding show trials for and no doubt executing journalists and political dissidents. Isn't it time now we chose sides between freedom and tyranny? The Fourth of July would be a perfect day for it.
