The future tense here is revealing. If you think that US intervention in Iran has not been happening yet, you are either not paying attention, or equating intervention with only an invasion by US troops, or opposing military attacks but not opposing lesser tools of imperialism. In either case, your concepts of imperialism and anti-imperialism, democracy and republicanism, are certainly very different from mine.
> but not onthe grounds that Saddam Hussein's dictatorship
> was some sort of model or ideal,
The government of Iran is not a dictatorship like Saddam Hussein's government. Iran is just about the only republican democracy, still limited as its democracy is, in the Middle East.
> And to defend not just against US chest beating and
> sabre-rattling, but as ma progressive standard bearer
> of anti-imperialist democracy and republicanism.
I have yet to go as far as Chavez, who has given Ahmadinejad a Libertador medal (the highest medal of honor in Venezuela) and celebrated the Iranian and Venezuelan Revolutions as "sister revolutions," in any of my remarks concerning Iran:
"La imposición de la condecoración 'Collar de la Orden del Libertador' al presidente Mahmoud Ahmadineyad, por parte del jefe del Estado venezolano, Hugo Chávez Frías, es la actividad que precede la firma de los instrumentos jurídicos y que antecede las palabras que ofrecerán ambos mandatarios" (" Irán y Venezuela rubrican instrumentos jurídicos para fortalecer lazos de cooperación," 17 de septiembre de 2006 <http://www.minci.gov.ve/noticias-prensa-presidencial/28/10166/iran_y_venezuela.html>);
and
"Bienvenido a Venezuela donde se ama a Irán, donde un pueblo heroico comenzó una revolución. Le damos la bienvenida a un insigne líder como Ud, líder de un pueblo heroico, el pueblo iraní y líder de una revolución, hermana de la Revolución venezolana, la Revolución Islámica" ("Presidentes de Venezuela e Irán celebran reunión en Miraflores," 17 de septiembre de 2006, <http://www.vive.gob.ve/inf_art.php?id_not=2464&id_s=6&id_ss=1&pag=86>).
I have heard that Chavez, unlike me, is a teetotaler, so perhaps he has found Iran even more sympatico than I have (Simon Romero, "Chávez Alcohol Ban Outrages Venezuelans," 3 April 2007, <http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/04/03/news/venez.php>). :->
In any case, though, it's a strange way to go about politics to decide your position simply to differ from my position, whatever my position on democracy, republicanism, and anti-imperialism (or any other topic) is, flattered as I am to be the point of reference. I don't decide what to think about Iran by listening to you or Doug. I read a lot of things written by scholars, journalists, etc. of various political persuasions who have relevant expertise and form my own view of the matter.
> the Iranian policy of executing people (generally
> without appeal or any other sort of due process)
Execution "generally without appeal or any other sort of due process" today? That simply isn't true, with the exception of those who are tried for terrorism (a tiny minority of cases), whose due process is indeed violated. Even those who are tried for terrorism in Iran, though, are generally not put into the situation of some of those whom Washington has indefinitely detained, tortured, and sometimes killed (by US or foreign personnel) _completely outside any judicial process altogether_.
The main structural problem of death penalty in Iran (other than aforementioned terrorism cases and a few exceptional but sensationalized cases of gender inequality that sometimes arise in a country in the South like Iran) is the same one that Americans (as well as most peoples in class society) face: class inequality. Emadeddin Baghi* writes, "Those sentenced to death are mainly from a lower class of the society" (Emadeddin Baghi, "Death Penalty in Iran: a Report and Analysis [2000-2004]," The 2nd World Congress Against the Death Penalty, Montreal, Canada, 6-9 October 2004, <http://www.emadbaghi.com/en/archives/000048.php>), especially because of Iran's draconian counter-narcotic laws**: "dernières années, la plupart ont touché de crimes de droit commun, des questions de mœurs et de trafic de stupéfiants" (Emadeddin Baghi, "Une recherche à propos des exécutions des 27 dernières années en Iran des points de vue de la sociologie et du droit," "Le 3e Congrès Mondial Contre la Peine de Mort," Paris, 1-3 février 2007, <http://www.emadbaghi.com/en/archives/000851.php>). Baghi argues: "There seems to be an explicit relation between poverty, financial and cultural deprivation, and the figure of crimes and death penalties. Those who commit crimes are largely victims and the result of economic and cultural deficiencies"("Death Penalty in Iran"). Baghi provides data of executions in Iran from March 2001-September 2004, divided by class and gender (the executed are overwhelmingly male, as are prison inmates in general) here: <http://66.98.198.66/emadbaghi.com/en/archives/documents/1-1.doc>.
* Recently, a Financial Times article about the work of Emadeddin Baghi was posted to this mailing list.
** A majority of prisoners in Iran are those convicted of drug-related crimes: "There are an estimated 68,000 Iranians imprisoned for drug trafficking and another 32,000 for drug addiction (out of a total prison population of 170,000, based on 2001 statistics)" (Lionel Beehner, "Afghanistan's Role in Iran's Drug Problem," 14 September 2006, <http://www.cfr.org/publication/11457/>); "It has been noted that around 60% of inmates in prisons around the country are those arrested for drug-related crimes. . . . As have been presented through Table 1, the number of those jailed for drug-related crimes (dealers and addicts) from 1979 to 2003 was 2,556,143 individuals, an average of 106,509 per annum. From 1989 to 2003, an annual average of 130803 drug-related crimes has been committed" ("Crime and Justice Situation: Laws and Legislations," <http://www.unodc.org/iran/en/rule_of_law.html>). -- Yoshie