Iranian Elections

-- Picture from June 13, 2009 Protest in Tehran from user Mousavi1388 on Flickr


I've had some requests for my thoughts on the Iranian elections. It's worth remarking that the amount of coverage these elections are getting in our media is probably unprecedented. Ahmadinejad has captured our attention, despite his minimal real power. His incendiary talk about Israel and Jewish people and the West is reprehensible. And many of the Iranian people whom he is supposed to represent know that he does them great ill. If his threatening overtures toward Israel continue, the lives of many innocent Iranians will likely be in serious danger.

I have to say that I am not surprised in the result, as Ayatollah Khamenei had thrown his support behind Ahmadinejad euphemistically by urging Iranians to vote for the most anti-Western candidate. And whatever the Ayatollah wants, he usually gets.

I would be very surprised if the election wasn't rigged. Admittedly, there were no polls to provide even a rough estimate of the candidates' respective popularity. But the speed with which the election results were delivered was incredibly suspect. I guarantee Iran's electoral infrastructure isn't half as modern as ours, yet the results were returned in an amount of time only slightly longer than an American national election. It's always a tragedy when repressed peoples' voices around the world are stifled.

It's times like these when I feel an incredible love for my country and all the privileges that come with living in the greatest country on earth. I look at places like China, Iran, Cuba, and NorKor and I am filled with anger. Humans are not meant to live in chains. We yearn to be free. When will these people figure it out?