[lbo-talk] Ali Khamenei

Yoshie Furuhashi critical.montages at gmail.com
Mon Sep 3 08:17:58 PDT 2007


I have said that Ali Khamenei is the arbiter of contending factions in Iran, sometimes siding with liberal Westernizers against populist anti-imperialists, other times vice versa. That's one way he stays in power, even though he lacks the authority and legitimacy that revolution gave Khomeini in the eyes of Iranians.

Critics of Iran's government also help Khamenei stay in power. When Khatami was the President of Iran, all that went wrong in the country, not just things for which he was actually responsible, was often blamed on Khatami, not on Khamenei; today, the blame goes to Ahmadinejad, not to Khamenei. Not just the corporate media but also liberals have tended to leave Khamenei off the hook. Strange. -- Yoshie



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