David Frum's Diary
FEB. 20, 2004: IRAN VOTES
Iran Votes
Today is election day in Iran – and a very strange sort of election it will be. In an important essay in the New York Post, Amir Taheri calls this an election that kills illusions – above all the illusion that Iran can be reformed from within. His ominous but powerful conclusion:
“[T]he Bush administration needs to develop a coherent analysis of the Iranian situation. It must decide whether or not Iran is, in the words of the State Department's No. 2, Richard Armitage, a ‘sort of democracy,’ or a despotic regime using religion and violence to remain in power.
“Short-term Realpolitik may counsel an accommodation with the present regime in Tehran, much as it has determined Washington's China policy. But that would mean the premature death of President Bush's ambitious plan for ‘a new Middle East.’ It would also give the Islamic Republic time to assemble an arsenal of nuclear weapons, and other weapons of mass destruction, which the Tehran leadership regards as its best insurance policy.”
Michael Ledeen observes in NRO that the Iranian regime’s methods of control are becoming more violent all the time. “Demonstrations five days ago in the western city of Marivan were so potent that the regime sent helicopter gunships to shoot down protestors, and there are reports that members of the regular armed forces joined the demonstrators.”
Violence may stifle dissent; it cannot confer legitimacy. The Financial Times reports that turnout in the elections has been desultory: “[F]ew polling stations in Teheran experienced more than a trickle of voters.”
As their domestic repression has become more heavy-handed, the Iranian mullahs have become more determined than ever to acquire nuclear weapons so as to defy all external challenge. On Thursday, USA Today reported the discovery of still more bomb-making technology – this time, uranium-enrichment centrifuges at a military base in east Teheran.
The Democrats and President Bush’s critics want endlessly to reargue the war in Iraq. But the world has not ceased to revolve while we examine our navels. The Middle East continues to fester – Iran is heading toward a crisis that its leaders believe they can survive only by intimidation and terror – and the United States cannot much longer postpone deciding what it will do about this menace.
http://nationalreview.com/frum/diary022004.aspI am reading some thing on BBC persian website that would like to share it with you:
Its reporter in Tehran says that there are few votters in Tehran and he adds that 1179 candidates have already canceled their candidacies in this sham election.