Mojtaba Vahedi: Iran's Revolution From the Inside Out

[Valin]

WSJ:

 

Mojtaba Vahedi, an exiled former insider with the moderate mullahs, talks about the struggle for reform, his own exile, and why Tehran won't change without another popular uprising.

SOHRAB AHMARI

5/31/13

 

Alexandria, Va.

 

'Iran is a country with a government that was elected." So declared Secretary of State John Kerry on a visit to France in February. His statement echoed an earlier one by Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, who during his Senate confirmation hearings in January pronounced the Iranian government "elected" and "legitimate."

 

In the coming days, count on Western media to reinforce that view of Iranian democracy with coverage of the run-up to the June 14 presidential election. The horse-race aspect of the reporting is already in the air. There was breathless news on May 21 about the disqualification of dozens of presidential hopefuls, including the reformist standard-bearer, former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani. This week, attention turned to the improving fortunes of one candidate, Saeed Jalili, a hard-liner with a pronounced hostility to the West. Could a reformer still win? With President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad stepping down after two four-year terms, would a Jalili victory mean even more trouble for America and its allies than his predecessor?

 

Mojtaba Vahedi is here to say: None of it matters.

 

"What is happening now is not an election but a form of theater and the candidates should really be called actors," he says from his home in exile in Northern Virginia. "The regime couldn't care less who the people prefer."

 

(Snip)

[Pepper]

@Valin

 

thanks for that shameless plug elsewhere

 

Ending quote of WSJ article is quite telling (for us).

 

I read it as an analog for Obama and current culture of distrust of government.

 

 

What are the chances of another popular explosion of anger and resistance toward the regime after the June 14 election like that seen in 2009? Unlikely, says Mr. Vahedi. He isn't given to optimism about a country where "there's been a total breakdown in the Iranian concept of trust—beginning with the families, in small towns, in the big cities. The people lie to each other. The regime lies to them. They lie to the regime."

 

How long can this state of affairs last? Mr. Vahedi sighs and yet sounds optimistic despite himself: "No regime can survive on repression alone."

[Valin]

@Valin

 

thanks for that shameless plug elsewhere

 

Ending quote of WSJ article is quite telling (for us).

 

I read it as an analog for Obama and current culture of distrust of government.

 

 

What are the chances of another popular explosion of anger and resistance toward the regime after the June 14 election like that seen in 2009? Unlikely, says Mr. Vahedi. He isn't given to optimism about a country where "there's been a total breakdown in the Iranian concept of trust—beginning with the families, in small towns, in the big cities. The people lie to each other. The regime lies to them. They lie to the regime."

 

How long can this state of affairs last? Mr. Vahedi sighs and yet sounds optimistic despite himself: "No regime can survive on repression alone."

dirty little secret, that never make the MSM

There are large part of Iran where government officials can't go, without an armed escort.

 

Without the Iran/Iraq war this regime would have fallen, long ago.

 

 

Remember what I always say....Trends that cannot continue...Won't.