The Wonk Room’s Matt Duss discusses the future of the Iranian protests on MSNBC
The Wonk Room’s Matt Duss discusses the future of the Iranian protests on MSNBC
This afternoon, the Wonk Room’s Matt Duss appeared on MSNBC to discuss President Obama’s statements on Iran and what to watch for during the upcoming days’ protests. He credited Obama for being “clear and steady” in his support of the Iranians’ human rights and questioned “what, if anything, [Obama] could do simply by speaking out, as his critics insist he should.” He also drew parallels between the events happening now in Iran and those before the 1979 Revolution:
DUSS: As you said, the huge ceremonies and demonstrations that are happening right now, this is very important symbolism. These are the same sort of demonstrations that took place leading up to the 1979 Revolution and Mousavi and the people around him have been very smart to put Khamenei in the position of the Shah right now. And we need to wait and see something that could really tip this or be a tipping point is when the clerical establishment starts to fall away from the regime and start to go out and release more statements in support of the demonstrators.
Watch it:
Foreign Policy interviews Mousavi’s spokesman about what Mousavi wants from the U.S.
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“…and Mousavi and the people around him have been very smart to put Khamenei in the position of the Shah right now.”
June 18th, 2009 at 6:30 pmAre matt and slippery dating?
June 18th, 2009 at 6:33 pmPresident Obama has said everything he needs to say about Iran. Let them settle things their own way in their own country.
When the dust settles, then he can start talking again.
June 18th, 2009 at 6:35 pmI’m really surprised that mr and mrs o aren’t personally out in the streets of iran stopping the protests. He did claim he was going to save the world, didn’t he?
June 18th, 2009 at 6:40 pmamericanPee, Is there any thread that you can take seriously? Do you have anything of substance to say about an issue that is not a left or right issue, but an issue about the life and death of a lot of people and the direction of a country that could effect the world? Are you really just a dumb peice of shit who has nothing of any substance to say?
June 18th, 2009 at 6:53 pmMy computer won’t allow the video to play. Grrr…
I wonder if Matt thinks these protests will actually have some effect toward toppling the theocracy in Iran? Too soon to tell? Maybe that’s too extreme a goal?
June 18th, 2009 at 6:55 pmangels81,
The troll is not interested in actually contributing, only disrupting with it’s stupidity.
Flag it.
June 18th, 2009 at 6:57 pmMatt duss, try losing some weight and gaining some brain cells.
June 18th, 2009 at 6:57 pmTurns out President Obama is quite the foreign policy guru, huh trolls?
Sitting on his thumbs is “policy?”
June 18th, 2009 at 6:58 pmFlag it.
We’ll do. :)
June 18th, 2009 at 6:59 pmAmericasBack, the troll absolutely live for any attention they can get — much like spoiled 3 year olds — and will fill entire threads with their stupidity, if we let them.
June 18th, 2009 at 7:05 pmThe protesters are using the same tactics that were used in the 1979 revolution. The use of “mourning rallys”, which was used in 79 to bring down the shah, puts the government in a bind. The more protesters that are killed, means more mourning rallys, which has a snowball effect. The big question in the next few days will be what the military will do.
June 18th, 2009 at 7:08 pmSome of the best reporting that is being done on Iran is comming from Huffpo. They are light years ahead of the MSM on this issue. My hats off to Huffpo.
June 18th, 2009 at 7:14 pmIran is on the edge of a cliff right now, and this is not the time for the White House and Obama to say anything in public to give Khamenei a way to blame the protests on America. As each day goes on Khamenei is looking more and more like the Shah, and for us to throw a monkey wrench in that would be disaster. Obama has done the right thing, and stayed low.
June 18th, 2009 at 7:27 pmWOW, Mousavi’s spokesman compares Obama to Mousavi and Bush to Ahmadinejad.
Ouch. That’s gotta hurt. There’s only one glaring differance.
When Bush stole the election, there weren’t millions of protesters in the streets.
June 18th, 2009 at 7:35 pmNico Pitney on HuffPo is live-blogging news from Iran. He used to be one of the TP crew!
June 18th, 2009 at 7:36 pmZooey Says:
He used to be one of the TP crew!
Really? I didn’t know that.
He’s like the Walter Cronkite of this issue. None of the TV channels have more than 5% of what he’s putting up, and that over 24 hours late.
Remember back during Gulf War I when CNN’s coverage made the concept of 24-hour cable news permanently viable as a primary source for news for average Americans? I think that’s what Nico’s work on this is doing for web/blogging is the same thing now.
Also gotta give a shout-out to Andrew Sullivan at the Atlantic who’s been running a pretty good liveblog himself.
.
Mathazar Says:
WOW, Mousavi’s spokesman compares Obama to Mousavi and Bush to Ahmadinejad.
Oh come on, we were all thinking it.
June 18th, 2009 at 8:04 pmAPee is prolly back at Burger King trying to confuse people with his Rovian Maff
And, no, I am not posting to you APee but about you.
June 19th, 2009 at 12:34 amI think its great that Matt is getting air time.
June 19th, 2009 at 2:00 amAmerican Patriot Says: Are matt and slippery dating?
Is APee and Jimmeh doing more than dating?
June 19th, 2009 at 2:04 amI just want to use this space to say… Look, during this whole GWOT thing, we’ve been hearing a lot about how ebil Islam is. The religion that inspired Al-Qaeda on 9/11 must be horrible, right? But I’ve been seeing pictures of demonstrators taking cops and militia guys out of hostile crowds, protecting them, for no other reason than their own moral code. I’ve been seeing how things play out in Iran because of their moral code, not in spite of it. “Islamism” is as much a part of the protest movement going on there as it is of the status quo. In fact, probably more so. Where the rulers can’t move on the protestors and why, is dictated by Islam.
1. Frankly, it’s not that bad. These are decent people, and their religion is a big part of their decency.
2. Whatever comes out of this – either way – will still be profoundly “Islamist.”
On the one hand, they’ve got this f**ked up religion that makes their women hide themselves as second-class citizens. On the other hand, it ties their hands againt the worst kinds of abuses that they might be able to conduct otherwise.
As an American, all I can say in response to what I’ve seen so far is… Alaho Akbar!
June 19th, 2009 at 2:12 amThat, above, does not sound like an ElBruce comment, to me.
June 19th, 2009 at 2:42 amI’ve been paying a lot of attention. One thing that is clear is that these people have their hands tied by their religious morality, on both sides. In some ways we might like that, in other ways not. But both sides are dealing with this inability to oppose the religious motivations of the other. In the case of the protestors, it seems to be working in their favor.
Example: today’s demonstrations were treated as a “mourning” demonstration (i.e. religious) rather than a political demonstration. Not coincidentally, we’re starting to hear about police and militia refusing to conduct violence on the demonstrators today.
Example: protestors safely removing police and militia members from the crowd and taking them to safety rather than taking them hostage or beating them to death. Somebody in those crowds was being amazingly decent, to the level that suggests that they must have a specific moral code requiring them to do so.
Example: Tonight, with all other communications shut off, protestors in Iran have been shouting “Alaho Akbar!” to each other from the rooftops, to let each other know they aren’t alone; that their numbers are strong.
Example: Tomorrow’s protests take place on the Iranian version of the “sabbath” that is, the day of the week that they’re supposed to spend in religious activities. The protest crowds are going to be bigger than ever.
Plain fact: Even if Mousavi ends up prevailing, don’t assume that Iran will be secular. The protest movement is intentionally using many of the same methods that the Iranian Revolution used in ‘79. And it’s working again.
Look at it from their point of view – the way everything plays out is, it’s a question of who’s being the better Muslim; as long as there’s a religious excuse, one can’t be blamed or oppressed for protesting; to do so is un-Islamic. As long as they do it “properly,” the protestors can get away with protesting, since the only legal reason to crush them would be to claim they were “un-Islamic.” But they still have the ability to claim they’re being “pro-Islamic.”
From what we’ve all seen, this all plays out in terms of strict religious morality.
I’m just impressed that religion is being employed for an actually good cause for once. God knows it hasn’t before in my lifetime.
PS: Is that ElBruce-ian enough for you?
June 19th, 2009 at 2:58 amPoll: Was the Iranian election fixed? http://rankkit.com/component/option,com_pollxt/Itemid,53/pollid,332/task,voting/
create and share internet polls at http://www.rankkit.com
June 19th, 2009 at 6:35 amApparently, it doesn’t matter if the election was rigged or not. The Supreme Leader has spoken this morning stating that it was a fair election and any more protesting that goes on will be dealt with harshly. NPR announced this morning that there is another rally scheduled for tomorrow.
June 19th, 2009 at 8:30 amen son videolar
June 21st, 2009 at 5:44 amen son videolar
Thank you..
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