Iranian elections make Ahmadinejad ‘increasingly vulnerable’
By on Apr 26th, 2008 at 7:30 pm
Iranian elections make Ahmadinejad ‘increasingly vulnerable’
The AP reports that according to final results today, conservatives “consolidated control of Iran’s legislature in run-off elections,” but at the same time, opponents of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad also gained strength in the Parliament. Reformists in Iran “favor greater democracy, closer ties with the West, and reducing clerical powers in Iran” and made a “respectable showing even after most of their candidates were barred from running.” The results suggest the “hard-line” Ahmadinejad “is growing increasingly vulnerable ahead of a bid for re-election next year.”
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Was that a news article or an opinion piece? Our invasion of Iraq was a prime reason for Ahmadinejad coming into power in Iran. One would think that our continued presence in Iraq would be a reason for conservatives to consolidate power. While we know that sanctions are causing economic hardship in Iran in spite of their oil supplies it doesn’t follow that reformists calling for closer ties with the West would gain strength. These things look politically mutually exclusive.
April 26th, 2008 at 8:02 pmLi’l O/T, Zed?
April 26th, 2008 at 8:24 pmHey it’s the dude that always misspells Pelosi!
April 26th, 2008 at 8:29 pmAhmadinejad was elected as a Populist who promised to make life Better for the avererage Iranian Citizen.
Things are NOT Better, and he is suffering the consequences.
The Mullahs in Iran have the power to Block anything the elected government enacts.
Tehran saw huge demonstrations of public sympathy for America in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks. Iran was very helpfull in defeating the Taliban in Afghanistan.
All of this current Iran Bashing and sabre rattling by our Government is just Increasing the power of the Mullahs.
April 26th, 2008 at 8:39 pmYou know, before we stupidly invaded their next door neighbor and started wagging the ole’ saber at them, Iran’s people were moving to a more democratic, open government (unlike some of our allies in the region, such as Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, aka the worst country in the world). It’s nice to see that despite all our efforts to scare them further into fundamentalism (kind of like what we’ve done here in the US), the Iranian people are rejecting tyranny and fighting for their own freedom.
April 26th, 2008 at 8:42 pmBut, I thought that Ahmadinejad was a dictator. That’s what our government says./sarc off
April 26th, 2008 at 9:22 pmJust like Condi’s recent taunting of Muqtada al-Sadr was meant to create instability and thus justify our continued presence in Iraq; all the sabre rattling on Iran is meant to keep the “bad guys” (who we initially installed) in power. Keeping Americans scared of boogeymen helps keep them craving a big bad authoritarian daddy to protect them.
April 26th, 2008 at 10:26 pm
Quick! Nuke em before someone more moderate comes to power and we can’t demonize them as IslamicFundieFascists!
April 26th, 2008 at 11:51 pmWhat’s his approval rating? Higher than 28%?
April 27th, 2008 at 12:22 amAh, Shrub’s best pal going the route of the idiot-boy-king, der Chimperor?
Rhetorically irrelevant, the both of them.
April 27th, 2008 at 11:01 amOh noooo. What will the Bushies do without Ahmadinejad to make in to their boogy man?
April 27th, 2008 at 11:06 amBadger Says:
Ahmadinejad was elected as a Populist who promised to make life Better for the avererage Iranian Citizen.
Things are NOT Better, and he is suffering the consequences.
The Mullahs in Iran have the power to Block anything the elected government enacts.
Just emphasizing that Badger has a point. The opposition may support “reducing clerical powers in Iran” but the only way for that to happen is for the Iranian people to stage a new revolution in which the clerics are toppled from power.
April 28th, 2008 at 1:25 amAhmadinejad may be very unpopular in Washington and he may be facing increased opposition from the Iranian people, but we shouldn’t forget what happened when the last “populist” leader pushed a reformist platform. The mullahs stopped anything and everything that HINTED of a threat to their power (even the Parliament is unable to overrule the mullahs on anything of importance).
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is the dude we spent tax dollars on making him out to be a Hitler so we can bomb Iran. We have to act before he gets voted out of office next year.
I mean, he went to Iraq and we gave him security to protect him, we could have arranged an accident if he was such a threat.
Couple of things.
The President of Iran is NOT the commander in chief. He is not in charge of the military or any weapons programs.
The President on Iran is democratically elected, just like ours. The Mullahs determine who can run, just like in the US our elite determine who gets on the ballot. No difference.
What we are doing to Iran is a crime against humanity, but we have a lot of practice doing this against other countries, since their ain’t no sheriff in town except us. When the sheriff is bad, and he owns the press, the town is bad. We are bad.
April 28th, 2008 at 3:54 am