The world may be watching, as President Obama keeps repeating, but that is not protecting the protesters in Iran. From a link on Twitter, John Wohlstetter forwards this BBC feed – people trying to man burning barricades. They are fired upon. Gunshot after gunshot. They seek shelter but with incredible determination try to hold their ground.
Yes, the world is watching. So now what?
The crucial question is whether, in the face of demonstrators willing to die for their cause, Iran’s security forces will flip, and go over to the side of the demonstrators. For that, it does not help at all to have Obama referring to Ali Khamenei as “the Supreme Leader,” or doing anything else that holds out any mantle of legitimacy to the Iranian regime (see post below).
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4 Comments
1. John Fembup:Yeah, the world is watching. So now what?
Oh, I think about the same thing as happened in Ghostbusters – when the Rick Moranis character, pursued by one of the minions of Gozer, fled across CPW to Tavern on the Green.
His screaming and rapping on the windows attracted the bored attention of the diners. But then, when he was dragged away from the windows by the beast, all the heads turned back to the tables and their dinner companions, and the conversation resumed where it had left off.
Jun 23, 2009 - 8:56 pm 2. Professor Guvinoff:@1 John Fembup:
Whether that was your intention or not, you are doing a good job of depicting the worst possible scenario, and if cynicism was the only force at play, the inevitable one.
But a cynical analysis does not cover the whole spectrum of possibilies.
Jun 24, 2009 - 3:13 pm 3. John Fembup:Yeah, perfesser, there is a whole spectrum of opportunities. Isn’t there always? And I describe only one.
The Ghostbusters scene is striking precisely because it depicts reality in an unreal situation – an imaginary garden with a real toad in it, so to speak. The reality is in depicting how most people actually react when someone else is in danger but they feel safe where they are. There is a seemingly endless string of examples of this very behavior among individuals and among nations.
So you have my opinion. What’s yours? Can you suggest a more likely outcome? Or are you just intellectualizing the obvious – that there is “a whole spectrum of possibilities” without offering your opinion of which one you think is most likely – if not the one I suggest.
Jun 27, 2009 - 5:52 am 4. John Fembup:“The Obama Administration today announced that they will recognize Ahmadinejad as the “elected president” of Iran.”
As I predicted.
Human nature is a bitch ain’t it?
Aug 4, 2009 - 3:36 pm