The Prince of Persia

It would appear that there is a growing movement of dissatisfaction in the streets of Tehran, in the wake of a “landslide” victory by the “allegedly” popular Mamood Ahmenadeenajab. It is always a clear signal of a healthy democracy that when a “wildly popular” leader wins a landslide election, tens of thousands of people pour out into the streets to protest. If you did not sniff out the sarcasm in that last sentence, the objective was to use satire to illustrate that if Amhedamnedijab were indeed as popular as he claims to be, then the Iranian people would not be gathering in such staggering force to protest his “victory”. You never see crowds of angry citizens 10 miles long if the victor enjoys the support of 65% of the people. I was proud of the Iranian people who risked their freedom and safety engaging in a Tiananmen Square style gathering. So to the people of Persia, I salute you. I just hope that your bravery doesn’t get you shot or imprisoned.

I find this show of disapproval encouraging, but I am concerned that this pro-democracy protest may be crushed with a military action. I rank Ahmayabadabadoodab very high on my shit list of world leaders, but if a genie granted me the power to depose megalomaniacs, Ahmadinerjab would not be a top priority. My top three are Kim Jong “Mentally” Ill, then the sick twisted Knights of the Roundtable running Myanmar, then Comrade Hugo Chavez in a virtual dead heat with Robert Mugabe with an honourable mention to the cocksuckers running the Sudan. As crazy as I believe Ahamananananajab is, he is little more than a glorified sock puppet for the Ayatollah. I am less concerned about the Prince of Persia than I am about the Sultan, and what exactly is his end game.

The Sultan, err Ayatollah, has said publicly that God wants Ahmaboobjob to be President, a strong divine endorsement for his sock puppet. That means that the puppet master approves of all the crazy shit coming out of the puppet’s mouth. This elaborate ventriloquist act is not making the world a better place. On one hand, they advocate vaporizing Israel, while on the other are developing a nuclear program that would provide them with the capacity to do so. The excuse is that they sorely need a nuclear program to produce energy, despite Iran sitting on top of one of the largest supplies of energy in the world. It would be ironic if it were not so disturbing.

What are the benefits to antagonizing Israel by threatening to destroy them and then openly pursuing the means to do so? Are they trying to goad the IDF into a preventative pre-emptive strike? Israel has nothing at all to gain by attacking Iran and would do so only to prevent their nuclearization and their own potential destruction. Wasn’t one Jewish Holocaust enough, oh that’s right, Badmood Ahmadimajab hosts international conferences to debunk that the Holocaust ever took place. If Ahmabeeninabedwithjihad, were to tone down the anti-Semitic rhetoric and mothball the exploding atoms program, his country would benefit greatly from the increased trade and economic activity. Why they feel a combative and destructive path is the road best followed makes no sense to me. But hey, I view the world through the eyes of a practical pragmatist and the actions of some lunatics just cannot be evaluated on the basis of rational decision making.

I wish the Iranian people all the best, and I applaud their courage. Their government has two options, do a recount or suppress the protest. A recount of a rigged election accomplishes what exactly? The question is to what lengths is the Supreme Leader prepared to go to protect his sock puppet? Would this alternative reformer also allow the Ayatollah’s hand up his ass, or would he loosen the Sultan’s grip on absolute power?

Was the election fixed? I cannot prove it, but given the “alleged” level of support and the level of backlash against his victory, all signs point to yes. If one had his hands on all levers of power, which the Ayatollah does, rigging an election would be very easy. In healthy democracies, great efforts are made to separate the machinery of democracy from the coffers of power. Elections are run by independent organizations and scrutineers are allowed from all stake holders to observe the crucial voting and counting processes. Somehow I doubt that the Sultan allows this necessary level of transparency in Iranian elections. Typically in rigged elections, the ruling party asserts itself the support of 80% - 99% of voters to provide themselves with the strongest mandate possible. Clearly the puppet masters realized that the opposition to their power was too strong to assert that level of support, so it is easy to see where they came up with the figure of 63%. In 2000 George Bush won with less than 50% of the vote, but you didn’t see massive rioting in the streets of Washington. I suppose in Persia, trying to scam the voters into believing that 2/3 of the country supports the unpopular incumbent is not working, because if so these protest would not be taking place.

"The test of success is not what you do when you’re on top. Success is how high you bounce when you hit bottom."

- General George S. Patton, Jr