PrintJune 17, 2009
It Has Always Been the Mullahs
Iran is spinning out of control. As Mahmoud Ahmadinejad declared victory in the Iranian elections, riots broke out in Tehran. Huge crowds continue to protest Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's allegedly "rigged" victory. The government is trying to clamp down -- opposition candidates were placed under house arrest and then released -- but the unrest has not yet died down.
The CIA should be in Iran, helping the dissidents and reformers, and strategizing the removal of the country's nukes. Instead, Obama said that "it is up to Iranians to make decisions about who Iran's leaders will be," and that he was "deeply troubled by the violence" in Iran. (In contrast, he was "shocked and outraged" when late-term abortion doctor George Tiller was murdered.) He said: "I think that the democratic process, free speech, the ability of people to peacefully dissent - all of those are universal values, and need to be respected." (I hope he will remember to respect them in the United States.) "And whenever I see violence perpetrated on people who are peacefully dissenting, uh, and whenever the American people see that, uh, I think they're rightfully troubled."
But what is he going to do, now that he feels "troubled"? Keep talking to the mullahs: "We will continue to pursue a tough direct dialogue between our two countries."
Many people in the United States seem to think that the uprising represents a major sign of hope in America's relationship with Iran. Both liberals and conservatives have been putting great stock in the outcome of these elections, and they haven't given up hope. They seem to think that if Mir Hossein Mousavi becomes President, things will be different.
Balderdash!
On the surface it is a hopeful sign. But the bottom line is that the Presidency is not the highest office in Iran. The mullahs are in charge. The election was essentially a show. Mousavi is as radical as Ahmadinejad, but smoother. Nothing would have changed. The Islamic Republic of Iran is going nuclear and annihilationist. That doesn't change.
I feel for those terrified souls who are marching through Tehran blindly, acting out in hope that it might effect any change. They are engaging in an exercise in futility. In reality, if they value their lives, they will flee Iran. We should have backed the reformers and the dissidents years ago when free men had a shot. But that was an opportunity missed -- and now we are here.
The allegations of fixed elections come after polls showed that half of the electorate wanted Ahmadinejad. But if half of the electorate wanted this bloodthirsty jihadi annihilationist, then what are we talking about? Hundreds of thousands of people turned out at rallies for Ahmadinejad before the election. The election was and is a ruse. As Christopher Booker wrote in The Telegraph, "The reality is that this was a completely sham battle between rival factions of a regime as ruthless as any in the world, in which the real power is exercised by the gang of hard-line mullahs round the ‘Supreme Leader', Ali Khamenei. In an election riddled with fraud (six million more ballot papers were printed than there are Iranians eligible to vote), all four regime-approved candidates had long been personally involved in the regime's murderous reign of terror."
Mousavi positioned himself as a reformer. It was shaping up to be a first-class piece of political theater: the "reformer" would win, and would con the UN and the President while finishing their extensive, comprehensive nuclear weapons program. Not one nuke, not two nukes. Many nukes. The world wants so desperately to be fooled. And so the "new" Iranian President would "engage" in a "new era," "new dialogue," and "diplomacy," to Obama's delight.
It was always a ruse. Mousavi is as establishment as they come. He was Prime Minister of Iran from 1981to 1989, and editor in chief of the official newspaper of the Islamic Republic party. Further, he's cut from the same Nazi cloth as Ahmadinejad: he was one of the founders of Hezb'allah, and also helped construct Iran's murderous intelligence services. Mousavi was a favorite of the Ayatollah Khomeini. He said he was running for President because he could "no longer stand to see... [Iran] moving toward dictatorship." Nothing about ending Iran's jihad against Israel, or against America.
Yeah, right, a reformer you can ...believe in!
The election was and is irrelevant. Iran's objective has not changed, nor will it, since the Ayatollah Khomeini seized power in 1979. And at least with Ahmadinejad we know what the drill is. At least he is honest. We know who he is, what he is, and what he says. A Mir Hussein Mousavi win would have been a time wasting distraction. His objectives were the same as those of the mullahs. It was a battle between a wolf and a wolf in sheep's clothing. With an Ahmadinejad victory, be grateful we were spared all the leftist media tripe about "a new era" of "interfaith dialogue," featuring Katie Couric donning the hijab to get to know Mousavi's oh-so-progressive mother - all giving them more time to build more centrifuges.
Bottom line: the Iranian election is a non-story, as are the riots, unless the demonstrators push Mousavi aside and topple the Islamic Republic itself. Failing that, it's all smoke and mirrors. The mullahs are running the mahdi madhouse, and they are pursuing their global agenda. This is nonsense.
The real news story is the 55,000 centrifuges running twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year, and what Iran plans to do with them. The real news story is Obama's timidity as Iran's youth tear through the streets of Iran. He is abetting the mullahs.
It doesn't matter who won. Iran is an annihilationist state.
And either way, Obama is going to bow to these annihilationists. Iran is not going to cut the weak one in the White House any slack. No. They have opted not to give Obama the ruse of a "reformer." There will be no curtain for President Pantywaist to hide behind as he submits to these barbarians. The mullahs are going to show the world what Obama really is.
The President is naked at the feast, baby.
Pamela Geller is the editor and publisher of the Atlas Shrugs website and former associate publisher of the New York Observer.
