[lbo-talk] Juan Cole: preliminary reactions to the Iranian vote totals

Bhaskar Sunkara bhaskar.sunkara at gmail.com
Sat Jun 13 21:58:59 PDT 2009


Yes, despite the prepolling data I cited (or Yoshie cited and I borrowed), there were significant irregularities and violation of basic norms of elections.

Regardless of who really won the elections the surge of protests and activities is politicization in a depoliticized “post-revolutionary” society and thus should be applauded. As we saw in similar circumstances in Eastern Europe if some sort of oppositional core is formed in civil society, the ruling class of Iran is in trouble. Hopefully this isn't just a flair-up.

Also I think this “win” is an excellent thing for Israel, Egypt and the other US-backed forces in the region. An election of a moderate would’ve allowed Obama to engage with Iran more, maybe deferred their nuclear ambitions and thus comparatively weaken the power of US-backed client regimes in the Middle-East.



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