And those words would be, "free elections" and "Iran."
Anyone who has been following the news of the "free elections" in Iran knows what I'm talking about. In the days just prior to the election, the news media was full of stories about how the President of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, was facing a really serious challenge from his opponent, Mir Hossein Moussavi. The media was even going so far as to say that the election would be a toss-up at best, and that Ahmadinejad stood a really good chance of losing.
Of course, that was before the election.
Since then, there have been reports of ballots being "lost" or just "disappearing," indicating that the "free election" in Iran was anything but. And then, the reporters that reported the missing ballots either got locked up by Ahmadinejad's secret police or went into hiding to avoid being arrested and locked up. This was quickly followed by the little tyrant claiming victory in the elections, saying that he got 60% of the vote. He's saying this, of course, as his secret police are out hunting down reporters who are reporting the truth about the election.
Then, as expected, the loser starts complaining about the election being rigged, and about those mysterious missing ballots. What does Ahmadinejad do? He makes a public statement that he "cannot guarantee the safety" of his opponent, thereby absolving himself of the bad thing that is about to befall Moussavi. What he's done, in reality, is give the green light to his minions to go ahead and assassinate Moussavi - after all, if his opponent is dead then there's no one left to lose the election to, right? And that sure will discourage anyone else from running against him, won't it?
In the mean time, the Iranian students and a hell of a lot of the everyday Iranian populace has taken to the streets, protesting the obviously rigged election. And when I say "a hell of a lot," I'm talking in the tens of thousands, boys and girls. This thing isn't just going to go away, ya know.
So now the latest thing is that the Supreme Leader of Iran, the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has ordered an investigation into the conduct of the election. Surprise, surprise....wonder what they'll find?
The one thing that Ahmadinejad forgot in this election was the power of the Iranian students. It was this body of people that were Moussavi's strongest supporters, and no one in Iran - or the rest of the world, for that matter - predicted the massive student turnout to cast their vote. You would think that Ahmadinejad would be the last person to forget this - after all, in 1979 when the Iranian students overran the US Embassy and took our people hostage (Thanks a lot, Jimmy Carter), Ahmadinejad was one of those students. He played an integral part in the planning of the operation, and was there at the embassy for nearly the entire time. He more than anyone else should have rememberd just how dedicated, powerful, and volatile a body of students can be. The Chinese can sure tell you, as can the Koreans - both of those nations have been rocked by massive student demonstrations. Rememer Tienamin Square in 1989?
But Ahmadinejad has forgotten history, therefore he is doomed to be the victim when it repeats itself. I have a feeling that the students in Iran are going to do the same thing to him that he and the students of 1979 did to the Shah - they're going to run him out of town on a rail, and he'll most certainly deserve it.
This may very well be the beginning of the end for Ahmadinejad, and I hope for the sake of Iran and the rest of the region that it is.
Time will tell.
IHC
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