I went over to Instapundit today to see how the 101st Fighting Keyboarders are taking the fight to the Iranitards. That led to this interview, in which he begins the process of proving himself a savant for predicting that technology would play a role in events to come, which nobody had ever done before. Ever.
Now, Insty has painted his blog green and fairly frequently mentions Iran, mainly to either make stupid points or to join in the same masturbatory orgy of “look at what I’m noticing” that seems to have consumed about 75% of the Iranblogging thus far (and 98% of the right’s). But something keeps nagging at me, and I realized what that something is.
Two years ago, Reynolds was advocating systematic American assassination of the Iranian government and scientists. Not in order to overthrow the government and provide a safe democracy for Iranians (as ill-advised and unlikely as that outcome would be), but instead to punish the government and people of Iran for participation in the insurgent movement against occupying U.S. forces in Iraq.
This is the major reason I’ve been going on about the emptiness of the “green solidarity” movement. There are simply too many people “going green” who could not care less about the Iranian people, their goals, their sacrifices. No heavens opened up, joining neoconservatives with devout Muslims on the streets of Tehran. There’s no concern for whether tens of millions of Iranians live in freedom or in oppression, what their government will look like or even what the protesters’ hopes are as they put their own lives on the line. It’s about various elements of conservatism validating their preexisting notions while, once again, someone else puts their asses on the line. It’s why the bravest act Obama has taken during his presidency is not bowing to people who wouldn’t mind a few hundred thousand Iranians’ blood shed in order to prove a point, and instead maintaining silence rather than subverting autonomous Iranian demands for freedom and democracy to make John McCain’s little soldier tingle.
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The first inkling I had that there was something weird going on here… green is a color associated with Islam in politics, and for that reason it is Hamas’ color in Palestinian politics (the religious alternative to the secular Fatah). Now, I tend to be very sympathetic to Hamas (which is complicated in and of itself), but… well, still, it was weird to denouncers of “Islamofascism” supporting a green revolution. Anywhere.
I don’t really know how to “stand in solidarity” with people under real threat of personal violence half-way around the world, but of course my sympathies go with them. As I’ve come to understand more about this movement, I am definitely seeing things about them (liberal reforms—as in liberal/freedom, not socialist) that make me optimistic.
It is also increasingly clear that the neocons are doing nothing more than drumming up interest so that when Khomeini crushes these protests, they can beat the war drum. If these protests actually force a reversal, you’ll see them in the uncomfortable position of admitting that Iran’s democratic process vindicates getting The Bomb to protect Iran from the Americans.
And then, I’m sure it will be back to talk of the Clash of Civilizations and Bomb, Bomb, Bomb Iran. Without skipping a fucking beat.