Obama, today: The second thing that I think’s important to recognize is that the easiest way for reactionary forces inside Iran to crush reformers is to say it’s the US that is encouraging those reformers. So what I’ve said is, `Look, it’s up to the Iranian people to make a decision. We are not meddling.’ …
Foreign Affairs
All I Said Was Canadian Beer Sucks
Sullivan: John Cole be damned! Seriously, whatever our differences on how to tackle foreign policy, whether we’re conservative or liberal, Democrat or Republican, neocon or post-neocon or noncon, witnessing this struggle for core democratic freedoms puts it all in perspective. There are no sides in this respect. Because this is America. And these people are …
I thought we were all Iranians now
After all the crazy purple thumb stuff, it’s a relief to see this from the Obama administration: “The point is this is not about us,” said one administration official, who has been working on the issue of Iran. “The point here is we will continue to monitor the situation to see how it, in a …
Potatoes…
Was wondering if anyone knew why Ahmadinejad is being referred to as President potato by the Iranian students? This Australian piece calls Ahmadinejad’s government a “potato government,” and this twitter references Mousavi saying the following: “these masses were not brought by bus or by threat. they were not brought for potatoes. they came themselves” What …
The Blogger Coverage of Iran
I’m trying to follow the Iran situation, but I just can’t handle the American blogger coverage. It just reminds me too much of the warblogging circa 2003, and you just get the sense that the green paint signifying the green revolution is no longer just on the blogger’s hands. Everything is so breathless and over-the-top …
Civil War In Iran?
In Iran an anti-gay religious conservative and anti-elitist* rural populist decisively defeated urban elite liberals who wanted to move their country to the left, especially with respect to squishy leftist ideas like ‘diplomatic engagement’ and ‘rapprochement‘. Question: why aren’t Republicans happy? Answer: who said they’re not? It seems to me that we have underestimated how …
Either Way, We Better Start Bombing
I agree with many of you that Sullivan has been a great source for collected Iranian election coverage, but yesterday he published, without comment, this “reader” email: Drum is both shrewd and correct. A bare Ahmadinejad win would have hidden the fraud. A bare Mousavi win would have been much better for the regime’s atomic …