Something really revolutionary is happening in Iran and the mainstream media has basically fallen asleep in terms of coverage. Andrew Sullivan has done a fantastic job of covering the protests in particular. He has been compiling twitter feeds and other blog posts that have managed to escape from the tight net put in place by the Iranian regime. He has made his posts green in Solidarity with true president elect Mir Hossein Mousavi and so so I will do the same.
Sullivan has received estimates that over 1,000,000 Iranians turned out for rallies despite state persecution and opposition. There has been nothing like this in the middle east in my lifetime and I find the possibility of change to be truly electrifying. Even has Iran has been demonized its citizens have grown into among the best educated and best connected in the region. Even state censorship has failed to stifle the amazing outpouring of blogs and creativity.
Evidence for the rigging of the election has emerged over the past few days and has become more and more persuasive. Even Nate Silver whom has been quite conservative in his prognosis has seen evidence of tampering and strange results. Vice President Joe Biden has asserted his doubts about the elections as have most U.S analysts.
It seems that the only ones that are viewing this election as legitimate are the same neoconservatives. This is the same group that before the election said they would support the incumbent Ahmadinejad. Daniel Pipes for instance clearly stated as much. It seems that these groups depend on a continual war machine pumping anti-Iranian propaganda and that the victory of a moderate would undermine their credibility. They would sacrifice all of the values they pretend to hold sacred in order to support their war aims. We should not allow this election to die down but should do everything to build solidarity and support organic democratic movements in Iran.
Lastly, I wanted to share pictures that I took yesterday in Harvard Square, Cambridge of a 100+ person protest of the Iranian elections… It was nice to see so many brave the light rain to protest on a “peripheral issue.” They sang and chanted proudly and received near unanimous car honks.
Tags: Ahmadinejad, andrew sullivan, Election, Iran, mainstream media faliure, Mousavi, Rigged, twitter
