Unreal, unfree in Iran

NY Times Editorial:

There is no transparency or accountability in Iran, so we may never know for sure what happened in the presidential election last week. But given the government’s even more than usually thuggish reaction, it certainly looks like fraud.

Although a runoff was widely expected between the two top vote-getters, the polls had barely closed before authorities declared victory for the hard-line president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. And it was a landslide: 62.6 percent versus just less than 34 percent for the main challenger, Mir Hussein Moussavi.

We understand why so many Iranians found that impossible to believe. Mr. Moussavi had drawn hugely enthusiastic crowds to his campaign rallies, and opposition polls suggested that he, not Mr. Ahmadinejad, was the one with the commanding lead. Even more improbably, and cynically, authorities claimed that Mr. Ahmadinejad carried all of his opponents’ hometowns — including Mr. Moussavi’s — by large margins.

When protesters took to the streets in the fiercest demonstrations in a decade, the police beat them with batons. The government also closed universities in Tehran, blocked cellphones and text messaging and cut access to Web sites.

On Sunday, as protests continued, authorities detained more than 100 prominent opposition members and ordered some foreign journalists to leave the country. According to news reports, Mr. Moussavi remained in his home but was being closely watched. In a triumphalist press conference, Mr. Ahmadinejad seemed to threaten his rival, declaring that the former prime minister “ran a red light, and he got a traffic ticket.”

If the election were truly “real and free” as Mr. Ahmadinejad insisted, the results would be accepted by the voters and the government would not have to resort to such repression.

After four years of Mr. Ahmadinejad’s failed economic policies and ceaseless confrontations with the West, many of Iran’s voters clearly were yearning for a change.

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The elections are another potent reminder that there can be no illusions about Iran’s government and its malign intent. That is a hard political fact.

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The editorial then adopts the illusion that there is something to be gained from negotiations with a regime that can not be trusted to run a fair election. There is no evidence that Ira's current regime will bargain in good faith or live up to any bargain it might somehow agree to. Obama seems to think he has some magic to make the religious bigots "reasonable." Put me down as more than skeptical on that point.

The Europeans have tried that approach for over eight years and the Bush administration also made an effort. The fact is this regime of religious bigots does not want a deal that is short of a mass conversion to their weird religious beliefs.

The administration's near silence in the face of the travesty in Iran suggest they are willing to sell out the people of Iran for the chance to cast their pearls before an unreceptive audience. I think that is one reason why the Iranian opinion of the US has declined since President Bush left office. Bush gave them hope for their aspirations and Obama has shown a willingness to sell out those aspirations by trying to accommodate the oppressors of the people.

Meanwhile the people of Iran continue to take their complaints to the streets.