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To: humint
That's an interesting perspective. Can you cite one or more examples of Iranian "public opinion" influencing policy in Iran? By influence, we are talking about political influence - not militant coercion driven by corruption and Islamic revolutionary zeal.

Sure: the man in the title of this thread, elected by the voters in a race between two main candidates, both of whom were “conservative” but who clearly had differing agendas - including somewhat different opinion on the role of religion in Iranian society - and different supporters. This was certainly far shjort fo teh degree of "choice" offered in many other countries, but it’s also far different from the role of citizens in Libya, or even Saudi Arabia.

It’s also worth noting that the popularity of Ahmadinejad’s party declined in the recent election, inculding voting for the islamic body which will chose Iran’s next supreme religious leader – certanly a choice of potnetially great consequence both witin Iran and outside its borders.

Iran’s citizens backed themselves into a nasty corner when they approved a constitution creating a theocratic state and without any provision for its revision, and it’s quite possible it with take another generation or two for them to find a way out this trap.

But IMO the fact that Iranians are getting into the habit of establishing the legitimacy of government via regular elections is an encouraging sign that eventually even the role of the theocracy will have be renegotiated on similar terms.

And BTW... it wouldn’t surprise me if there was a reasonably stable and tolerant government in Tehran before the same was established in Baghdad.

15 posted on 12/28/2006 1:56:02 PM PST by M. Dodge Thomas
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To: M. Dodge Thomas
"But IMO the fact that Iranians are getting into the habit of establishing the legitimacy of government via regular elections is an encouraging sign..."
Hadn't thought about it that way. To me, a failure of the strategy of the 'NeoCons' is that they underestimate just how complex and fragile a democracy is. A dictatorship or a theocracy is pretty straightforward to put into place, but it could be said that it took 'us' (western civilization) from the Magna Carta until the Constitution to put a balanced, effective representative government into place.
23 posted on 12/28/2006 6:20:11 PM PST by RedStateRocker (Nuke Mecca, Deport all illegals, abolish the IRS, ATF and DEA)
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