The State of the Opposition is Strong
The New Republic / Abbas Milani
10-Jan-2010 (7 comments)

A couple of days after June’s stolen election in Iran, Flynt Leverett and I were both guests on “The Charlie Rose Show.” Mr. Leverett was waxing eloquent about how Ahmadinejad could have actually won the election. His supposed evidence was a May poll, conducted by phone from Turkey, before the presidential campaign had even begun. Apparently he did not read the entire report of the poll, merely a summary, published in a Washington Post editorial. Much of the full report contradicted his conclusions. Moreover, anyone who believes that Iranians today will reveal their real electoral preferences to a pollster calling from Turkey probably responds to emails from Nigerian princes.

In Wednesday’s New York Times, the Leveretts—Flynt and his wife Hillary Mann—were at it again. As the title of the piece suggests, they take on the mantle of prophets and predict: “Another Iranian Revolution? Not Likely.” They claim that they know that “much of Iranian society was upset by protesters using a sacred day to make a political statement.” They seem to have forgotten that the 1979 revolution was made precisely by using sacred days for political ends. They claim to know that the opposition in Iran “do[es] not represent anything close to a majority.” Yet even if we take the regime’s own figures, 14 million people voted for the opposition. They dismiss this opposition as articulating nothing but “inchoate discontent.”

Crucially, they also suggest th... >>>

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obama

How could Hillary became MANN? The same as she changed position.

by obama on Sun Jan 10, 2010 10:30 PM PST

All these Iran experts are zionists! They all want Iran to be the buggyman so Israel can thrive! They know damn well, the democratic and friendly to US IRAN is much more of a threat against Israeli domination of the middle East than IRI would ever be.

So, they would do anything they can to keep that buggyman (IRI) in power so they can milk the US government and the american jewery from billions of dollars. What would be their excuse for protection if Iran is a civilized and democratic country? True democratic Iran is a bad news for the US and Israel, since IRAN would climb the ladder fast as Korea did, and Israel doesn't want competition in ME.


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shushtari

god bless dr milani!!!

by shushtari on Sun Jan 10, 2010 09:07 PM PST

he is a true patriot........he ingeniously tears apart the leverett's idiotic assertions and their pathetic attempt to apologize for the mullahs.

 thank you dr milani, 

as you so eloquently state, the akhoonds' reign is over, and they will soon join their master khomeini in hell

 

sepasgozareem 


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vildemose

 “Hillary Mann Leverett:

by vildemose on Sun Jan 10, 2010 06:06 PM PST


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Darius Kadivar

Hamid Dabashi Eat Your Heart Out ;0)

by Darius Kadivar on Sun Jan 10, 2010 03:52 PM PST

Flynt Leverett & Hamid Dabashi: Iranians do not want to overthrow the Islamic Republic:

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJw7bGr6qvA


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Veiled Prophet of Khorasan

No hope in Washington

by Veiled Prophet of Khorasan on Sun Jan 10, 2010 03:12 PM PST

 

I have no real hope that Washington will be of help. In fact I don't think Washington is able to help. 

Their "experts" are good at self promotion and getting things wrong.

I will never lose heart because of Washington because I don't expect anything from it. People like Cole; Leveretts or Kuperman for that matter are not Iranians. They do not share our desire for bringing democracy to Iran. Their interest is limited to the Nuclear issue; oil and other US interested. We are on our own. The good news is that Iranians are much more sophisticated than ever and know how to organize. Thanks to the newly born IIC we now have a forum. Iranians both inside and outside must lead this.


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Ari Siletz

Bracing ourselves

by Ari Siletz on Sun Jan 10, 2010 02:58 PM PST

Greens may have to succeed despite Western opposition to the movement. While Milani and others fight the good fight to weaken IRI support in the US, at the same time we should resolve not to lose heart if Washington starts waving its pom-poms for another dictatorship in the Middle East.  

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vildemose

Milani is great. Here is

by vildemose on Sun Jan 10, 2010 01:58 PM PST

Milani is great. Here is Juan Cole:

 

Thursday, January 07, 2010

Iran and the Goldilocks Principle: Why Kuperman is Completely Wrong and the Leveretts are Only Partly Right and There are no Tunnel Bombs

 

//www.juancole.com/2010/01/iran-and-goldilocks-principle-why.html

 

He wants Obama to make a backdoor deal with the IRI.


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