Iranian Theocracy Under Scrutiny

Two incongruent images come to mind when I think of my friend Shahrzad's Iranian father.

There is the high-grade caviar and chilled vodka he serves when he visits the U.S. for special family occasions. The treat is akin to his refined nature and worldly, sophisticated views.

And then there is the political culture of Iran, a theocracy in which an ayatollah is supreme leader for life and a buffoon of a president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, seems to exult in his own ignorance.

One does not correlate to the other. The vodka, the caviar, I can appreciate.

I find Iran's government structure of vaguely democratic elections and Islamic theocracy almost incomprehensible.

It's an important admission during these days of 24-hour news coverage of Iranian protests over a presidential election that appears pretty plainly to have been rigged.

The size of the protests and the apparent depth of the opposition have taken the West by surprise, and despite the Iranian government's attempts to squelch the foreign press, the drama is riveting. But we can't be quite sure just what we are witnessing.

That hasn't stopped the always cocksure American right wing from goading President Obama to issue stern denunciations and threaten dire consequences.

Senator John McCain has criticized Obama for not going further than the seemingly tepid but in reality wise and measured remarks he's offered so far.

Obama has expressed his "deep concerns about the election." But he's also willing to learn from past U.S. mistakes, noting "it's not productive, given the history of U.S.-Iranian relations, to be seen as meddling."

Obama will certainly continue to be pummeled by many a commentator and political detractor for the stand, but he's right. Even if one were to believe that our only policy objective with respect to Iran were regime change, it would be difficult to imagine events proceeding better than they currently are. Do conservatives really believe that cause would be helped by McCain-style bluster from the White House?

If Iran's government needs reform, it is Iran's people that must make that case -- and they are, very eloquently and tragically even with their lives. The last thing Iranian reformers and protesters need is to be painted as agents of the Great Satan.

Meanwhile, the United States has vital interests at stake, such as our desire to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons. Restraint, not fire-breathing political rhetoric reminiscent of the last administration, is the way to safeguard our position.

Apparently, McCain is willing to discount those realities.

As for the rest of us, we lap up foreign news coverage in odd ways. We expect drama like the crumbling of the Berlin Wall, or the military vengeance that retook Tiananmen Square. Many a commentator has referenced that deadly crackdown with anticipation.

It's as if we're propped on our sofas awaiting the visuals and then a sequel, the phoenix-like rising of a democratic system. Reconfiguring governments doesn't work that way. Most occur through tedious shifts in philosophy and, yes, through repeated protests.

Shahrzad and her father have witnessed many a street protest in Iran.

By far, the demonstrations happening now, both in support of Ahmadinejad and of his rival in the election, Mir Hossein Mousavi, are the largest since the 1979 overthrowing of the U.S.-backed shah. It's unclear where they'll lead, if anywhere. Shahrzad and her father predict that even if a second election is held, Ahmadinejad will still win, just with a smaller margin.

Even if that comes to pass, nothing can erase the images coming out of Iran. The protests are too widespread to dissolve without impact. The Iranian theocracy, steeped in hostility to modernism and America, must come to terms with the not insignificant part of its population that is demanding its rights.

As much as we'd like it to be different, all we can do is watch.

Iran Elections

Iran: Death to Election Fraud
by Rick Steves

Last year, while in Iran producing a documentary for public television, I observed freedom-loving people patiently making do under a repressive regime. Today, the relatively peaceful Iran I experienced is in turmoil.

Iran Election Mess Is Just a Reflection of Global Human Failings
by Louis René Beres

Today's dramatic Iranian instability is more a specific symptom of general civilizational fragility than an isolated disease. Beneath the surface, all world politics readily reveals a distinctly common disorder. This is the incapacity of human beings to find both meaning and identity as individuals, within themselves.

Iran Election Twitters In a Revolution
by Mary Kate Cary

It was a battle to show who could best harness the only real news source on the ground -- the new social media -- to report fast, accurate, and insightful information. Cable and network news lost both the battle and the war. Two of the journalists who won were Andrew Sullivan, a political blogger for the old-line magazine Atlantic Monthly, and Nico Pitney of the younger Huffington Post. Sullivan and Pitney looked at the gold mine of information sitting on the new social media platform and, with two staffers, jumped in. Sullivan and his staff cut and pasted the most interesting, useful, and profound tweets into a document he called "Live-Tweeting the Revolution," updated every few minutes.

Iranian Protests a Direct Challenge to Khamenei
by Anna Mulrine

"Flexing muscle on the streets after the election is not right," warned Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in the days before the bloodshed. "If they don't stop, the consequences of the chaos would be their responsibility." Those consequences included casualties that resulted from the worst upheaval in Tehran in 30 years, as well as mass arrests last week, with more than 600 protesters jailed ...

President Obama's Iran News Conference
by Cal Thomas

For the first time in a long time, the president was challenged about his positions on Iran, health care and his "occasional" smoking. This may be due to the heavy criticism the media have been getting from commentators who have accused them of not doing their jobs with coverage that has bordered on the worshipful.

As Iranians Revolt, Their Government Reveals True Self
by William Pfaff

The truly significant result of the suppressed Iranian revolt is that the most important Islamist radical movement in the contemporary world has demonstrated that it has become a brutally repressive dictatorship whose leaders rig elections and beat down clear popular demands for a true election count or repeat of the election itself.

The War Between Civilizations That Never Was
by William Pfaff

An important change is evident in what since Samuel Huntington's time has been mistakenly identified and manipulated as a war between Muslim and Western civilizations.

Iran's (So Far) Revolution-less Struggle
by William Pfaff

Iran's cosmopolitan and liberal middle classes and its students are making a revolutionary bid without intending a revolution. Few think that the demonstrations in Tehran, and now in other Iranian cities, can produce a change in regime.

Hungary 1956, Iran 2009
by Paul Greenberg

Liberty is not something that can be rationed; one freedom leads to another. Iran's demagogue-in-chief understands that old truth, which is why he is so determined to crush this peaceful revolution in today's Iran. All the odds are in favor of his doing just that, but Mahmoud Ahmedinejad has already lost something far more important than Iran's presidency; he has lost legitimacy.

Iran Elections: The Silent Revolution
by Paul Greenberg

This is something new: a Silent Revolution. The huge throng that marched through the Iranian capital last Monday spoke nary a word, Theirs was a silent vigil for a liberty not so much lost as never gained, from Shah to Ayatollah. Meanwhile, the White House and President Obama practiced its own form of silence. Things have changed since a president of the United States could be counted on to at least voice a protest when another people are cowed.

Iranian Regime Change Is for Iranians to Decide
by Mary Sanchez

I find Iran's government structure of vaguely democratic elections and Islamic theocracy almost incomprehensible. However, if Iran's government needs reform, it is Iran's people that must make that case -- and they are, very eloquently and tragically even with their lives. The last thing Iranian reformers and protesters need is to be painted as agents of the Great Satan.

The 'Neda Moment' Shows Promise of Social Networking
by Leonard Pitts, Jr.

Maybe you were there when Neda died. If you were, you saw a tragedy, of course, a 26-year-old Iranian protester gunned down in the streets. But I am convinced you also saw the future -- a profound change in the way you and I will henceforth comprehend the world.

Obama's Iran Policy Is a Bomb
by Jonah Goldberg

Here is the one immutable fact of Barack Obama's foreign policy agenda as it relates to Iran: It's over. If the forces of reform and democracy win, Obama's plan to negotiate with the regime is moot, for the regime will be gone.

Obama's Choice Is Not to Choose on Iran
by Jonah Goldberg

Stop measuring the success of your diplomacy with Iran by the degree to which the grinning, hate-filled stooge of a clerical junta will "temper" his rhetoric about the pressing need to destroy Israel and slow his ineluctable pursuit of nuclear weapons.

Iran's Crisis of Legitimacy
Ramin Jahanbegloo - Global Viewpoint

Increasingly, Iran's divine sovereignty has been less about religion than about political theology. As for the popular sovereignty, it has found its due place in social networks and political action of Iranian civil society

Iran Must Void Elections to Restore Peace on Streets
Shirin Ebadi - Global Viewpoint

People's dissatisfaction with the results does not concern the present elections alone: Many objections were made four years ago when Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was first elected president. Ahmadinejad's most important position until then had been mayor of Tehran. He was, however, supported by Basij and Ayatollah Khamenei, the Islamic Republic's leader for life. Ahmadinejad's four years of presidency resulted in people's great dissatisfaction.

Will Iran Look More Like Turkey, or Turkey Like Iran
Nathan Gardels - Global Viewpoint

The effort to forge new forms of non-Western modernity in the Muslim world has pushed Iran into bloody civil strife while Turkey swirls with persistent rumors of military plots against the Islamist-rooted government. The great historical question is whether, at the end of the day, Iran will look more like Turkey, or Turkey like Iran

(c) 2008 TRIBUNE MEDIA SERVICES, INC.