Iran

Although this blog is more interested in local issues than those from afar, I felt compelled to make a brief entry on what's going on in Iran right now. I am a foreign affairs geek and have followed much of the situation in Iran for the past four years or so. What the US public doesn't seem to understand, and confuses the hell out of them, is that Iran has basically been hijacked. There is an intelligent populace with moderate views of everything from religion to geo-political relations, but yet their government imposes a theocracy upon them along with a crooked President (who really has very little power other than mouth-piece).

Right now the youth of Iran are protesting in frustration. In a country that fits the US understanding of the Middle East (i.e., poverty, extremist terrorists, etc.) such rioting would only occur after a US bombing or due to worsening employment levels in said country. In Iran, they are protesting their oppression. Hell, the forces at play in Iran need to import Hezbollah in order to enforce the extremist views that the government espouses. The people are not behind them.

So when you see the news and you see the youth of Iran (and their professors) fighting in the streets, know that they are fighting for the future of Iran. These are not shoe banging anti-American holocaust deniers. These are pro-democracy, pro-diplomacy students. These are the people we want to win.

UPDATE: Here is a good summation of the situation and all of the surrounding politics.

SECOND UPDATE: Proving that I am not afraid of being wrong (or being perceived as wrong), please check out this analysis by Stratfor, a think tank that I have a lot of respect for. While not entirely in contravention of my own discussion, I believe the author would suggest that the idea that students are in a position to reform Iran is simplistic and wrong. I would only counter with the Western idea of "from the mouth of babes" and suggest that the older generation of Iranians may be interested in this revolt for more than safety reasons.