[ExI] left on iran

[Dan]

--- On Fri, 6/26/09, spike <spike66 at att.net> wrote:
> I am puzzled by the U.S. left's take on Iran.  The
> uprising has so much in
> common with the student protests of the 1960s here, such as
> the riots at
> Kent State U and Berkeley.  The current protests have
> it all: students,
> gays, women, protesting peacefully, calling for human
> rights, free speech,
> basic freedom.  They are being beaten and killed by
> the military, the
> police, corrupt religious fundamentalist government, a
> blatantly rigged
> election, oh this shameful scene really has it all, in
> black and white.
> 
> So why does the US left seem to have a strangely muted
> reaction, instead of
> what I would have expected, raving apoplexy?  The
> press seems to strike a
> puzzling neutral stance.  Where is Hollyweird
> Inc?  Where are the feminists?
> Where is the speak-truth-to-power crowd?  Where are
> the washed-up movie
> stars getting air time telling the world about how evil is
> the Iranian government?

There might be some fear that any condemnation might be used as a pretext for intervention...  I condemn the Iranian regime (and all regimes for that matter), but don't think it should be an invitation for the West to militarily (or "covertly"*) intervene.**  I have nothing against individuals, of course, privately helping Iranians to overthrow their state.  (Of course, my hope is that they don't replace it with a worse one.)

There could also be the view that since Bush was anti-Iran (and actually, IMO, among his many idiotic moves was not to open trade with Iran when Khatami was president, but instead continued the policy of demonization), those on the Left should be skeptical of Iran being bad.  Such skepticism is usually a good thing -- and anyone with a modicum of intelligence should always ask, "Why are those in power telling me this?  Why do they want me to believe this?  Of what benefit is it to them for me to believe this?"

But there are Leftists who are definitely against the Iranian state, such as Al Giordano.  See his "Brainstorming Iran: An X-Ray of Immediate History" at:

http://narcosphere.narconews.com/thefield/brainstorming-iran-x-ray-immediate-history

I've also noticed, on Twitter, a lot of Leftists from Europe pushing for protests and sanctions against Iran.  Of course, this is all anecdotal.

And what about a lot of the stuff going on at Citizentube?

Regards,

Dan

*  In quotes because covert operations tend to only be hidden from the public in the nation state carrying them out.  The target nation state, the target nation (nation and nation state are not the same), and the rest of the world tend to know when, say, a US covert operation is going down that it's the US government behind it.

**  See "Stay Out of Iran’s Evolutionary Process" by Philip Giraldi at:
http://original.antiwar.com/giraldi/2009/06/24/stay-out-of-irans-evolutionary-process/