"If Bush capable of embarrassment or critical thought" (Iran, Iraq irony)

[DeepModem Mom]

Robert Scheer, LA Times op-ed:
Iranian Revolution Is Thriving in Iraq
Did those wily ayatollahs give us the purple finger again? It sure looks like it after the smashing defeat Iran's religious fanatics dealt reformers in the presidential election Friday.


It was a replay of the election in Iraq, in which candidates groomed by Tehran's theocracy herded loyal Shiite followers to the polls to dip their fingers in purple election ink. Only this time the sight of lines of shuffling, chador-clad women voting away their human rights was not applauded by the White House.

If he were capable of embarrassment or critical thought, President Bush might have caught the irony of celebrating the triumph of democracy in greeting Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim Jafari in Washington on Friday and on the same day having his administration condemn the election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as Iran's new president.

Whether the United States approves or not, the most powerful Iraqi behind the scenes since the occupation began more than two years ago has been Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, who, along with Jafari was sheltered and nurtured by Tehran's ayatollahs during Saddam Hussein's secular dictatorship. It was no accident that the first serious independent initiative of the elected Shiite leadership in Iraq was to welcome Iran's foreign minister and to declare, amazingly, that Iran was the moral party in its 1980s war with Iraq.

The elected leaders of Iraq and Iran are borne by the same ill wind — religious fundamentalism — which unfortunately is the first choice of many voters in Iraq, Iran and even the United States....

***

The tragic legacy of Bush's overthrow of the defanged secular dictator of Iraq, whom Rumsfeld once embraced as the U.S. ally holding back the Iranian revolution, is the triumph of that revolution in both Baghdad and Tehran....


http://www.latimes.com/news/columnists/la-oe-scheer28jun28,0,7504644.column?coll=la-home-headlines

[nashville_brook]

1. neocons LOVE theocracy everywhere

remember the bullet points:

A leader must perpetually deceive those being ruled.

Those who lead are accountable to no overarching system of morals, only to the right of the superior to rule the inferior.

Religion is the force that binds society together, and is therefore the tool by which the ruler can manipulate the masses (any religion will do).

Secularism in society is to be supressed, because it leads to critical thinking and dissent.

A political system can be stable only if it is united against an external threat, and that if no real threat exists, one should be manufactured.

[DeepModem Mom]

2. Good summation, nashville. nt