Reply #82: "While there are no reliable national opinion polls in Iran" [View All]

[MADem]

to quote the article. But we're supposed to believe a guy who OWES HIS JOB at the state-run and controlled university, and his livelihood to the good offices of the Iranian Ayatullahs as to the mood of the country. I hardly think the guy is at seventy percent. If he's at forty I'd be surprised. Of course, he started out at about seven, so he has nowhere to go but up. And so long as they can drum up "critical mass" for his policies (what a sport, letting women go to football matches! Freedom is on the march!) the ayatullahs will make sure the vote count favors him.

No one seems to understand there is a resistance going on in Iran. The bulk of the population is under twenty five, and they are NOT happy. They want reform and liberalization, not the tyranny of the ruling Council.

This guy may tweak Bush, but he's not a nice person. He's pretty lousy, actually. And I'd wager that his popularity is transitory and centers around that single Bush-tweaking/nuke issue, much like Bush parlayed Nine Wun Wun and Terra Without End to raise his numbers.

You want some flavor of the country? Read this whole article--it's good: http://msnbc.msn.com/id/14609379/

"We have no such thing as majority rule in Islam," Koochakzadeh proclaims. "If the majority says, 'We don't want an Islamic regime,' they have no right."........."For 27 years, you and yours have been running this country. Why is there still so much corruption?"

The reply, which runs for several paragraphs, ends with: "Most of the trouble we have has been plotted by the United States and our enemies. And part of it is you voted for people you shouldn't have." He mentions a "stupid" presidential candidate who offered every Iranian $60 a month.

From the back, a man shoots back: "This person you're talking about was much closer to Imam Khomeini than many people in high positions."

Another man calls out: "There were others who promised to put oil money on the tablecloth!" The reference is to the candidate who won, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.



This OP-ED, by a Persian Jew, is also instructive: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/02/opinion/02hakakian.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

It is a very complex society, and things there are not always as they seem.