Neither Ahmadinejad nor Mousavi

Dave Osler a href="http://www.liberalconspiracy.org/2009/06/18/iran-neither-ahmadinejad-nor-mousavi/" makes this case /a in his article on Liberal Conspiracy. Some people seem to think that Mousavi is a reformer. Osler points out that he was a prime minister of Iran during the Iran-Iraq War. He may seem like a reformer compared to Ahmadinejad, but he is still someone who supported the theocracy in the past. Osler also takes issue with those on the hard-left who are sympathetic to Ahmadinejad because he is 'anti-imperialist'. Ahmadinejad may well be against US or Western imperialism, but he is quite keen on Persian imperialism! Furthermore, his views on individual liberty and the role of religion in politics should be anathema to progressives.br /br /Although Mousavi is not a candidate who would be willing or able to bring about dramatic changes to the system, his candidacy has encouraged people who span style="font-style: italic;"are/span keen on genuine reform to turn out and vote. Then, when it seemed the election was rigged, they have now bravely turned out to protest and faced not only police repression but attacks from the paramilitary Basij (which seem a bit like the Black Shirts to me - as they seem to be an irregular force the hardliners use to attack their opponents).br /br /I thus hope that the protestors do succeed in getting the election re-run. I am not certain that, if it was, Mousavi can win - given the strength of support for conservative forces among the religious, the poor, the rural population and some other groups. However, the sight of the police and the Basij attacking ordinary, unarmed demonstrators will hopefully demonstrate to even the most conservative voter that the system is a repressive one. If Mousavi does win, though, this could be very positive as this could open the door for further reform - beyond that which he himself intends. As a href="http://hopinewsfromiran.wordpress.com/2009/06/19/mass-protests-in-iran-death-to-the-islamic-republic-victory-to-the-iranian-people/" this article argues /a, span style="font-style: italic;""...people compare the plight of Moussavi (/spanem style="font-style: italic;"if/emspan style="font-style: italic;" he does become president) with that of Shapour Bakhtiar – the last prime minister appointed by the shah, whose government lasted a few short weeks before the revolution overthrew the entire regime."/spanbr /br /Hopefully, the hardliners will have overplayed their hand - by trying to rig an election against an actually fairly mild opponent who was himself a former lieutenant of Khomeni - and so will have awakened public opposition which will sweep them away as the Shah was swept away.div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/38622711-2221276240753049849?l=vinospoliticalblog.blogspot.com'//div

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