I can respect that sentiment. It does, though, look like the MSM is catastrophically failing to cover the situation at all, let alone propagandise much. A lot of stuff is coming from the "citizen journalists" though naturally one must keep in mind that the opposition undoubtedly inflates (or just does not know) the level of its support, the meaningfulness of its actions etc.

And you have to keep in mind that, if war/bombing of Iran is desired, Ahmadinejad is (likely) the better man to leave at the helm.

Either way, just the fact that there are protests of a reasonably large scale going on gives much hope for the near future of Iran.

David -

Rather than listening to MSM which in truth isn't covering this very well. Pay attention to what is coming off the street. Sullivan has done a reasonably good job of it as has Juan Cole. The reality, we may never know what the truth is about this election. The truth of the matter, we cannot look at Iran the same way e view the rest of the Arab world since it is not Arab, but Persian and there is a vast difference.

In my youth ca 1976, I was indavertently exposed to Iranian grad students plotting the overthrow of the Shah. As a veteran of the rampant paranoia about the federales, informants & infiltration that suffused the hardcore activist environs of Berkeley, Oakland, SF, Davis etc, I was initially stunned by the magnitudes of greater fearfulness and caution displayed by the Iranians.

My Jewish informant educated me about the Israeli-trained Shah's Savak that was allowed to operate freely in the USofA by the American authorities. Unfortunately, my informant guiltily told her Iranian husband that she had spilled the beans to me which resulted in an abrubt end to our friendship. Even my heartfelt promises of willful blindness (to their secret meetings) and silence had no effect.

She took the risk to say "goodbye" as I was packing my car to move out-of-state. She was also preparing to move, to Iran, and dismissed my concerns that her Jewish background would add to the risks.

I sometimes think of them and wonder.....

If the current student revolutionaries adopt the chillingly fierce and implacable determination of their predecessors, the regime has reason to fear. They should know.

You're being far too conspiratorial, David.

I am surprised at how much footage of police brutality is being freely filmed by western journalists and how freely they are allowed to beam this footage out of Iran. My experience of dictatorships tells me that this sort of thing is not typical of dictatorial behavior. (check Burma etc)

Try using Freud's Observation: Sometimes massive amounts of protest footage are just massive amounts of protest footage.

Then polish it with Occam's Razor. Which is more likely: CIA hires thousands of extras in Iranian capital for anti-Ahmadinejad protests, or foreign media and citizen journalists manage to smuggle out a few megabytes of actual footage?

I'm really not sure what you're trying to say. Should we stop paying attention to this major news event, or should we refrain from having an opinion just yet?

The dubiousness of this election, and the resulting civil unrest, doesn't strike me as a manufactured pretext for invasion. It's not as if opponents of Ahmadinejad, including myself, are just bitter about losing. It seems to me the voting patterns, timing, and other aspects surrounding the election were very bizarre indeed, and it should surprise no one if the election turns out to have been rigged. These protests are justified, the social rift inside Iran is real, and we should all care about what happens.

After Iraq, we have learned that we should be aware of patriotic militarism, especially following traumatic, fear-inducing events (such as 9/11). I don't, however, think for that reason that we should diminish our interest or our involvement in international events. In fact, we should encourage international scrutiny of foreign governments, especially when it comes to elections, to hold governments accountable. We can fight our militaristic streak without sacrificing our involvement in important international affairs.

Finally, more specific to this election, I don't think this questionable election outcome is even close to something that might convince Obama or an EU member to invade. Sure, there might be sanctions or warnings. But with Obama being so painstakingly strategic in his outreach to the Muslim world, and with leaders all around the world near-unanimously condemning the unilateral US invasion of Iraq, it is going to take a heck of a lot more than this--something like an attack on Israel-- to get US forces on Iranian soil.

Here is an interesting article from the WaPo
The Iranian People Speak