It is too often that people who live in a truly free and democratic country forget that there is a price for that freedom that lets their voice be heard. From time to time someone will try to take their voice away or other parts of that freedom. When that happens people have but 2 choices. They can either accept that their voice has been silenced, or they can fight to keep it. The people of Iran now face just such a time.
It does not take much of an education to see that the logistics of counting 35,000,000 paper ballots will take days to do properly. When the returns came back in 3 hours, it was a clear sign of fraud. It is this fraud that has taken the voice from the Iranian people and caused the massive uprising.
On Friday June 19, 2009 Iran’s hardline Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei simply told the people to accept this clearly fraudulent election or face the wrath of violent suppression. A quick analysis is that the alleged winner of the fraudulent election is hardline where the loser is more moderate. So simply the position Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei took is for self survival.
That has set the stage for what will happen next. The Iranian people will either choose to fight, or surrender their voices. From a simple patriotic point of view, people of every country can relate as to what is about to unfold. The desire for freedom is universal, but on the same note not every country is ready for democracy. A good education is required to allow democracy to grow and prosper. Without that education people are too easily lead astray. The uprising in Iran suggests that critical level of education has been reached, and the people want to move away from the hardline towards the moderate.
As Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has sided with the fraudulent winner, he has taken himself from his high untouchable perch and made himself fair game. Because of that, the stage is set for a possible revolution where not just the presidential seat is being battled for, it is the entire system that governs decisions in Iran.
Connecting the Dots does not know what will happen, but we have heard reports of cracks in the strong arm of the hardliners. Meaning there is a chance of a successful revolution as some of that strong arm will no doubt side against the hardliners.
If conflict erupts, there will be lives lost, but simply that is the price to pay for freedom. The world is watching as the events in Iran unfold, and all bets are off as to the final outcome.
While I don’t dispute the notion that Ahmadinejad is a hardliner, I’m not sure whether Mousavi really represents a ‘moderate’ option. Some have said that the difference between the two men may not be as big as we thought, but as far as the election is concerned, the people are right to demand that their votes are counted fairly.
Also, I have plenty of comments to make about your point on education and democracy, but I’ll save them for another day.