Iran so far away

The turmoil in Iran is an interesting situation, but I feel an ultimately futile one. American intervention in the country, like American intervention in any country, fucked the region fifty ways from Sunday. Apparently, the brilliant minds at Langley didn't consider that the millions of pissed-off Persians, strongly averse to the idea of a pro-Western puppet government would rise up against the regime and install an Islamic republic, a synonym for "despotic religious dictator state." The funnier thing about that era was that Americans were so paranoid about Communism spreading in the Middle East that we supplied weapons to Saddam Hussein, thinking "Hey, we can disarm him any time, he won't be any trouble at all!" A horrendously ironic mistake we would make not ten years later when we would arm the Taliban and train Osama bin Laden to combat the Soviets in Afghanistan. The lesson here is to 1. Not screw with the Arabs and 2. Forget about intervening anywhere.

But I digress. The Iran situation, the mass protest is symbolic of, I think, two things. First and foremost is the buildup of resentment against the Ayatollah Khomeini and his whole bullshit regime. He's the Rasputin behind the throne, in a way, the real voice behind Ahmadinejad. Ahmadinejad is just a figurehead, no real power, no real sway. But the youth in Iran are openly rebelling and protesting against the corruption in the government, which is to say that the next generation in Iran will remember how horrible and ridiculous this notion of a "theocractic republic" is. The youth have the capacity to change things in Iran, and I believe that they can do so if they keep up this open rebellion.

Secondly is the desire for real democracy. Now, democracy isn't always a good thing, but in this case, it's at least preferable to a Supreme Religious Prophet running things. The whole Middle East is as stable as an epileptic at a rave, but if the Iranians can do away with the extremely strict cultural norms, relax their anti-Semitism, ease in a more democratic and involved system of a government, than perhaps it'll be the first state in the region to chill the hell out. As far as Iraq is concerned, there are less attacks every day, less soldiers dying; it's a lot more stable. And if they can maintain it, perhaps set an example, then maybe Syria, Jordan, hell even Palestine, can follow suit. Israel could finally take off its body armor before going to bed.

But it all hinges on the countries stabilizing themselves. Foreign intervention will simply exacerbate matters and further alienate the Arab world. Give peace a chance, you fucking war-mongering assholes.

PS. Now all we have to do is exterminate the religious right in America and all will be well.