Khamenei certifies election

In a surprising announcement today, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei declared there was a “definitive victory” for Ahmadinejad in the iranian election last weekend. Well maybe it wasn’t surprising – maybe it’s what we expected him to say. What’s surprising is that he was able to count so many votes so quickly all by himself to arrive at that conclusion. From the Wall Street Journal;

Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in a rare speech at Friday prayers at Tehran University, said protests should cease and the opposition must pursue its complaints within the confines of the cleric-led ruling system.

He said protesters would be “held responsible for chaos if they didn’t end” days of massive demonstrations, and that official results showing a landslide for hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad were beyond question. “There is 11 million votes difference,” Mr. Khamenei said. “How one can rig 11 million votes?”

Mr. Khamenei blamed the U.K. and Iran’s enemies for the unrest, vigorously defending the ruling system….

Apparently, Khamenei didn’t catch the latest from Charles Krauthammer in today’s Washington Post;

[P]eople aren’t dying in the street because they want a recount of hanging chads in suburban Isfahan. They want to bring down the tyrannical, misogynist, corrupt theocracy that has imposed itself with the very baton-wielding goons that today attack the demonstrators.

This started out about election fraud. But like all revolutions, it has far outgrown its origins. What’s at stake now is the very legitimacy of this regime

I’m pretty sure the reformists aren’t going to accept a decision from the “Supreme Leader”. Especially since there are stories like these that the Wall Street Journal has assembled from inside Iran;

They beat students more when they saw posters of Mousavi in their rooms. And they carried big knives and guns.

They also attacked the women’s dormitory next door. The Supreme Leader calls us rioters, but I want to ask him: How can sleeping women in their beds be rioters? Is this the Islamic justice he believes in?

President Obama’s speech was good; he says that he will support us. He also said that nations must decide the fate of their countries by themselves. I agree with him, but now we don’t have any power to change the situation, so we need help and attention.

My hand was hanging out of the taxi window with a little green ribbon — the color of the reformists — tied around my finger. One of the militiamen told me to “throw that ribbon away!” When I refused, 15 people attacked me inside the car. They beat me with their batons and tried to pull me out.

My wife and my daughter who were sitting in the back seat cried and held me tight. I also held myself tight to the chair.

It’s not about an election now – it’s about a bunch of people who are tired of being oppressed. I keep hearing from the Democrats that Americans voted for domestic change in 2008. I read in the comments sections of the Washington Post questions like “why should we care” about Iran? Is that the kind of nation we’ve become in the last few months? From a “shining city on the hill” to a short-sighted, selfish walled in city that can’t see beyond it’s own self-serving, petty wants?

And, oh, since the current regime in Iran happens to be supporting our enemies in the war against terror, the fall of that regime would go a long way towards ending that war. Not to mention ending support to Hezbollah and Hamas in Syria and Gaza.

Category: Foreign Policy, Terror War