TEHRAN AND OTHER CITIES SEE LARGEST CROWDS OF PROTESTERS SINCE 1979
(June 20, Paterson, NJ) IRAN has been a four letter word in our political lexicon ever since Ayatollah Khamenei took the American Embassy with 56 American hostages captive in 1979. Actually, Iran has proven to be a tenacious thorn in America's side ever since. That unanticipated “Islamic Revolution” caught our intelligence services with their collective heads up their asses and actually swayed our Presidential Election that year. If not for the “Iranian Hostage Crisis” Ronald Reagan, arguably, may not have been elected President.
Here in this gritty, deteriorated, former industrial city just 11 miles from New York City a large Islamic Community has taken hold. Iranian immigrants constitute a substantial segment of Paterson’s population and, as could be expected, emotions are running high as the aftermath of last week’s election in Iran are playing out on TV for all the world to see.
While the hapless, moronic chatter from the Republican, tone deaf, obstinate, sputtering heads are advocating for a stronger United States response to the upheaval in Iran, virtually all the Iranian immigrants spoken to here believe that President Obama is doing the right thing by not overtly supporting the protesters and opposition movement.
Indeed, most believe last week’s election to have been most likely rigged. The fact that the hard line, controversial, incumbent, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad appeared locked into a tight political contest with his main rival opposition leader Mir Hussein Mousavi, only to be declared the victor by a ‘landslide’ margin of over 62% of the national vote, triggered the vocal and increasingly violent public demonstrations that threaten Iran’s very stability.
The overwhelming majority of regional experts and others intimately familiar with America’s troubled history in Iran, assert that the president is taking precisely the correct, prudent position at this time. This is not an “American” fight and, if President Obama was to come out vocally in support of the opposition movement, then the current regime and the Supreme Leadership Council would be able to proclaim this grassroots uprising as an “American led” effort.
A top ranking analyst working the Iran desk at the CIA, speaking anonymously commented, “The worst actions Obama could take would be doing anything that even appeared to be taking sides in, what is essentially, an internal political revolt. France and Germany can publicly condemn President Ahmadinejad, the Clerics and the rigged elections. They were not designated “The Great Satan” by the Ayatollah 30 years ago. For all these years Iran has used America as the reason for all their problems. Now is not the time to help perpetuated that dangerous myth.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/21/weekinreview/21cooper.html?ref=global-home
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/06/2009620184151643728.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/06/20/iran-election-live-bloggi_n_218402.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jun/21/barack-obama-iran-protests
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