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- A5204, on 08/13/2009, -6/+266For those complaining about registering. Sorry for the wall of text to everyone else.
TEHRAN — The Iranian police commander, in green uniform, walked up Komak Hospital Alley with arms raised and his small unit at his side. “I swear to God,” he shouted at the protesters facing him, “I have children, I have a wife, I don’t want to beat people. Please go home.”
A man at my side threw a rock at him. The commander, unflinching, continued to plead. There were chants of “Join us! Join us!” The unit retreated toward Revolution Street, where vast crowds eddied back and forth confronted by baton-wielding Basij militia and black-clad riot police officers on motorbikes.
Dark smoke billowed over this vast city in the late afternoon. Motorbikes were set on fire, sending bursts of bright flame skyward. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader, had used his Friday sermon to declare high noon in Tehran, warning of “bloodshed and chaos” if protests over a disputed election persisted.
He got both on Saturday — and saw the hitherto sacrosanct authority of his office challenged as never before since the 1979 revolution birthed the Islamic Republic and conceived for it a leadership post standing at the very flank of the Prophet. A multitude of Iranians took their fight through a holy breach on Saturday from which there appears to be scant turning back.
Khamenei has taken a radical risk. He has factionalized himself, so losing the arbiter’s lofty garb, by aligning himself with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad against both Mir Hussein Moussavi, the opposition leader, and Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, a founding father of the revolution.
He has taunted millions of Iranians by praising their unprecedented participation in an election many now view as a ballot-box putsch. He has ridiculed the notion that an official inquiry into the vote might yield a different result. He has tried pathos and he has tried pounding his lectern. In short, he has lost his aura.
The taboo-breaking response was unequivocal. It’s funny how people’s obsessions come back to bite them. I’ve been hearing about Khamenei’s fear of “velvet revolutions” for months now. There was nothing velvet about Saturday’s clashes. In fact, the initial quest to have Moussavi’s votes properly counted and Ahmadinejad unseated has shifted to a broader confrontation with the regime itself.
Garbage burned. Crowds bayed. Smoke from tear gas swirled. Hurled bricks sent phalanxes of police, some with automatic rifles, into retreat to the accompaniment of cheers. Early afternoon rumors that the rally for Moussavi had been canceled yielded to the reality of violent confrontation.
I don’t know where this uprising is leading. I do know some police units are wavering. That commander talking about his family was not alone. There were other policemen complaining about the unruly Basijis. Some security forces just stood and watched. “All together, all together, don’t be scared,” the crowd shouted.
I also know that Iran’s women stand in the vanguard. For days now, I’ve seen them urging less courageous men on. I’ve seen them get beaten and return to the fray. “Why are you sitting there?” one shouted at a couple of men perched on the sidewalk on Saturday. “Get up! Get up!”
Another green-eyed woman, Mahin, aged 52, staggered into an alley clutching her face and in tears. Then, against the urging of those around her, she limped back into the crowd moving west toward Freedom Square. Cries of “Death to the dictator!” and “We want liberty!” accompanied her.
There were people of all ages. I saw an old man on crutches, middle-aged office workers and bands of teenagers. Unlike the student revolts of 2003 and 1999, this movement is broad.
“Can’t the United Nations help us?” one woman asked me. I said I doubted that very much. “So,” she said, “we are on our own.”
The world is watching, and technology is connecting, and the West is sending what signals it can, but in the end that is true. Iranians have fought this lonely fight for a long time: to be free, to have a measure of democracy.
Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the leader of the Islamic revolution, understood that, weaving a little plurality into an authoritarian system. That pluralism has ebbed and flowed since 1979 — mainly the former — but last week it was crushed with blunt brutality. That is why a whole new generation of Iranians, their intelligence insulted, has risen.
I’d say the momentum is with them for now. At moments on Saturday, Khamenei’s authority, which is that of the Islamic Republic itself, seemed fragile. The revolutionary authorities have always mocked the cancer-ridden Shah’s ceding before an uprising, and vowed never to bend in the same way. Their firepower remains formidable, but they are facing a swelling test.
Just off Revolution Street, I walked into a pall of tear gas. I’d lit a cigarette minutes before — not a habit but a need — and a young man collapsed into me shouting, “Blow smoke in my face.” Smoke dispels the effects of the gas to some degree.
I did what I could and he said, “We are with you” in English and with my colleague we tumbled into a dead end — Tehran is full of them — running from the searing gas and police. I gasped and fell through a door into an apartment building where somebody had lit a small fire in a dish to relieve the stinging.
There were about 20 of us gathered there, eyes running, hearts racing. A 19-year-old student was nursing his left leg, struck by a militiaman with an electric-shock-delivering baton. “No way we are turning back,” said a friend of his as he massaged that wounded leg.
Later, we moved north, tentatively, watching the police lash out from time to time, reaching Victory Square where a pitched battle was in progress. Young men were breaking bricks and stones to a size for hurling. Crowds gathered on overpasses, filming and cheering the protesters. A car burst into flames. Back and forth the crowd surged, confronted by less-than-convincing police units.
I looked up through the smoke and saw a poster of the stern visage of Khomeini above the words, “Islam is the religion of freedom.”
Later, as night fell over the tumultuous capital, gunfire could be heard in the distance. And from rooftops across the city, the defiant sound of “Allah-u-Akbar” — “God is Great” — went up yet again, as it has every night since the fraudulent election. But on Saturday it seemed stronger. The same cry was heard in 1979, only for one form of absolutism to yield to another. Iran has waited long enough to be free. - Madhuradara, on 06/20/2009, -2/+213This was an amazing article. Well written, described the situation without belaboring the point. Salute the fighters and the writer.
- redcolumbine, on 06/20/2009, -7/+176FTA: "I don’t know where this uprising is leading. I do know some police units are wavering. That commander talking about his family was not alone. There were other policemen complaining about the unruly Basij. Some security forces just stood and watched. “All together, all together, don’t be scared,” the crowd shouted.
I also know that Iran’s women stand in the vanguard. For days now, I’ve seen them urging less courageous men on. I’ve seen them get beaten and return to the fray. “Why are you sitting there?” one shouted at a couple of men perched on the sidewalk on Saturday. “Get up! Get up!” " - Soughtout, on 06/20/2009, -1/+133A must read article by a well respected, passionate and courageous journalist.
- northwatuppa, on 06/21/2009, -0/+90It is rare to see a dictator's charisma fail. People like Stalin and Hitler, like Mugabe, Saddam and Kim Il Jong have an almost magical hold over the minds of their people. And when it fails, it always seems to spell big trouble for them.
Can you think of an instance when a dictator's charisma failed him and he wasn't brought down shortly afterward? - CanIGetAWitness, on 06/21/2009, -0/+77I wasn't going to complain, but I wasn't going to register either.
Let me say that I EnjoyTheFact you copy and pasted it for us though. Thanks. - ejpusa, on 06/21/2009, -0/+68This video link has been posted before, but I think it's worth showing again. I could only get to the first minute. And I've SEEN everything in my life. I think it's pretty powerful stuff, if you could pass it around. It's a young girl shot through the heart on the street of Tehran. She looks like a kid from anywhere USA.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vlehNLfk90c - ladysherwood, on 06/21/2009, -1/+57There is something to be said for not just one person, but an entire population of people standing up for what they know is right, even while the rest of the world looks on but can't or won't really help them. I expected, upon hearing the Ayatollah say that it was over, and to stop protesting, that that would be it. So I am pleased and surprised & very proud of the Iranian people for continuing to fight the good fight. I wish I possessed half the tenacity of these brave patriots.
- zenvok, on 06/21/2009, -0/+53-"I looked up through the smoke and saw a poster of the stern visage of Khomeini above the words, 'Islam is the religion of freedom.' ”
FINALLY, the old archaic i'm-a-cleric-so-i-decide-for-you attitude that i've observed from radical Islamics is changing to a more primordial and HOLY need. The need to be FREE. I wish they topple this theocracy once and for all. For the sake of their freedom and well-being and for the sake of humanity as a whole. We MUST evolve past our old cultural-religious dogmatisms as a race to embrace the the acceptance and open-mindedness of MULTI-culturism, democracy, education, truth and FREEDOM.
"Allah-u-Akbar” — God is Great - Suricou, on 06/21/2009, -5/+58Ron Paul is strictly opposed to meddling in the politics of any other country. No exceptions. Ever.
- method7670, on 06/21/2009, -0/+49My family is Persian. The majority of my family had to flee or go into hiding when the revolution happened. What bothers me even more is that I still have family in Tehran. Some of my immediate family lived within a mile of where the suicide bomb was, along with all the rioting. This is a terrifying time in my life. I can say that I have a new found love for the liberties that I have in the United States, since I was lucky enough to be born here.
- kingofinternet, on 06/20/2009, -12/+59this article made me weep.
- dsanonline, on 06/21/2009, -2/+48Remember Neda ...
- steelersfan7roe, on 06/21/2009, -3/+49Must Read.
- andy9590, on 06/21/2009, -1/+44A very well written article. But it is important to understand that the hard-liners are a relentless bunch. They are definitely weighing down their options of mass bloodshed if they feel it is to be required to bring things back into order. The spirit of the Iranians is nothing short of exemplary but throwing stones at men armed with powerful ammunition ain't going to get them a revolution. We are talking about a regime hellbent in keeping the country the way it has been since the decline of Shah. The hard-liners wouldn't go down easy.
- rpgmakr, on 06/21/2009, -0/+42It was a stupid move on the supreme leader's side to take a side on this. He could've authorised a recount, give the real result and be part of the solution. Now this is becoming more about him with each passing day.
- Claverhouse, on 06/21/2009, -1/+41Only if you like eating.
- jrm125, on 06/21/2009, -1/+39And yet you've failed to respond with a single, coherent thought. Nice work there.
- K4Lic0, on 06/21/2009, -0/+37YouTube has been removing that video all day long, If that one gets removed, HuffPost has uploaded it to their own servers (I'm not trying to promote them, just simply giving a source that won't go down.)
I've seen that video 3 or 4 times now, it's hard to watch but it needs to be seen. Gunned down early in her life while fighting for freedom. Truthfully, I don't think I'll ever forget her eyes following camera shortly before passing away. - ChineseDemocrat, on 06/21/2009, -4/+411953 all over again
Stand strong IRAN. - naz2292, on 06/21/2009, -0/+36Written by Roger Cohen
for all the people that couldn't see the actual article. - anonymousmedic, on 06/21/2009, -0/+35For great justice. Freedom for Iran!
- AmnesiacJack, on 06/21/2009, -0/+33Her name is Neda.
- geoken, on 06/21/2009, -1/+32The USSR had widespread dissent throughout it's history that had to be forcibly put down.
- Danial, on 06/21/2009, -2/+31And he also pointed out the double standard when it comes to dealing with the human rights abuses of Saudi Arabia and Egypt by the Republicans.
- sanman, on 06/21/2009, -3/+31Death to the dictator
- boogie606, on 06/21/2009, -2/+30the desire to be free resonates....
- strykefive, on 06/21/2009, -1/+28Dugg for an excellent article.
- JoeMondo, on 06/21/2009, -3/+29Women have always been at least as brave as men.
- dglad, on 06/21/2009, -1/+27I attended a talk given a couple of years ago by Canadian author, journalist, film-maker and actress Nelofer Pazira. Pazira is Afghan-born, but has extensive experience traveling through and living in the Middle East and Southern Asia. She made a interesting point in comparing Iran and Pakistan. Pakistan has a large, largely impoverished and under-educated population under the oppressive rule of a small, wealthy, well-educated elite. Iran is almost exactly the opposite--a large, well-educated and relatively affluent population under the oppressive rule of a small, under-educated, theocratic elite. Both, she noted, are ripe situations for revolution.
- llopez1223, on 06/21/2009, -2/+25Historically the revolutions that work are those without outside interference, because it is the general populous that runs the country, or at least has a meaningful say-so. If in fact we are witnessing a revolution in Iran, it will have growing pains because their economy is for the most part dependent on oil. With that said I hope that the people of Iran can find a political system that works best for them.
- bdbr, on 06/21/2009, -0/+22OED defines communism as "a political and social system whereby all property is owned by the community and each person contributes and receives according to their ability and needs." Given that all supposed communist countries were basically oligarchies that existed for the benefit of the ruling party, one could say that there has never been a communist country.
- rotundo, on 06/21/2009, -3/+25@tebriel1 - I hate to say it, but I think the public outrage in the US will last only until the next exciting story comes on TV :(
- jba68, on 06/21/2009, -1/+22I did not have to register.... i didnt even get prompted
- weeFred, on 06/21/2009, -1/+22This is not a pro American movement, it's a pro democracy movement. Stop injecting the USA into everything.
- rotundo, on 06/21/2009, -1/+21No, but feeling compassion is the first step in doing something.
- yutt, on 06/21/2009, -0/+19Tell me what it is like to be a crazy person.
- chilemaniac, on 06/21/2009, -0/+18Because early surveys found that many first-time voters were coming out to vote, which usually indicates support for a reform candidate.
Because the results were announced less than 2 hours after the polls closed, not enough time to count the votes.
Because according to the polls, Mousavi lost every district, including his own.
Because the government is refusing to recount, and is cracking down violently on protesters.
I understand what you're saying, if Ahmadinejad actually won the election, then they have little reason to protest. But most of the evidence seems to show that the election was a fraud. - rpgmakr, on 06/21/2009, -0/+18Retard.
- K4Lic0, on 06/21/2009, -0/+17Okay, how about you go run around the streets of Iran with the protesters, running through clouds of tear gas and dodging bullets.
.......... still waiting for your article ........... - jrm125, on 06/21/2009, -0/+16Or maybe he's doing what we should've been doing for the past few decades:
Not pissing where we don't belong and taking care of America's problems first.
If the Iranians want change, they'll make it happen themselves. And if they don't, it won't happen and we won't have gotten caught up in it. - K4Lic0, on 06/21/2009, -0/+16If you paid any attention, Obama HAS spoken about this.
- charm803, on 06/21/2009, -1/+17Because it's a great article.
- hwkEng, on 06/21/2009, -2/+17domino effect. First off. I'm Iranian and since when has everyone become an expert on Iran?
I find it absurd that Republicans including McCain who sang "Bomb Bomb Iran" is now caring about the Iranian people. I guess their friends in the military industrial complex need more money.
Obama is definitely doing the right thing, because any US support will make the situation worst. And this is *****. Since when is the US a defender of democracy in the Mideast. SADLY, at least has some sort of election (which is rigged!!). But what about other countries in that region? Most have no elections. - thatryanguy, on 06/21/2009, -3/+18Complaining about how his weeping won't change anything, won't change anything.
Me, I'm satisfied with pointing that out. - JoeMondo, on 06/21/2009, -0/+15We've had enough of you NeoCons and your emotional acting out on the world stage.
- K4Lic0, on 06/21/2009, -1/+15Kind of makes you want to wear a green armband, no?
- mitikomon, on 06/21/2009, -0/+14nobody like him here. just yesterday people found a good situation to show their dislike of him. he ruined his leadership by supporting one candidate so obvious(?).
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