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Iran Tag

Posted by William A. Jacobson on June 19, 2009 4 Comments

Is the collapse of the Soviet Union a reasonable analogy for what may happen in Iran? There are certain parallels, including repressive regimes bent on imposing ideology to perpetuate their own rule. In each case, it is hard to imagine how the repression could end,...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on June 19, 2009 1 Comment

The "Supreme Leader" of Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, staked out the hardest of lines today, demanding that Iran's opposition accept the official election results and stop street protests, or else. He blamed the violence on "ill-wishers, mercenaries and elements working for the espionage machines of...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on June 18, 2009 1 Comment

There is a lot more to the turmoil in Iran than meets the eye. I think the threat to the regime is more serious than people let on, if the world keeps watching and Iran is not permitted to pull a North Korea and seal...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on June 17, 2009 10 Comments

You knew this was inevitable. Regardless of what Barack Obama said or did, the Iranian regime would accuse the U.S. of meddling in Iran's internal affairs:Iran accused the United States on Wednesday of "intolerable" meddling in its internal affairs, alleging for the first time that...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on June 17, 2009 9 Comments

Barack Obama has come under criticism not only for his silence for several days, but also his failure to issue more forceful words of support for the protest movement in Iran.Others counter that more forceful words of support would be counter productive, that there is...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on June 16, 2009 2 Comments

There has been much dialogue, including on this blog, about the proper posture for the Obama administration to take with regard to the reform movement and protests in Iran. Many commenters argue that only Iranians can decide what is right for Iranians, and point...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on June 15, 2009 4 Comments

In the weeks prior to the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, Johns Hopkins Professor and noted Middle East scholar Fouad Ajami wrote that a free Iraq might have a profound impact on neighboring Iran:It is in the nature of things today, in an Iranian...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on June 15, 2009 13 Comments

Barack Obama's proclivity to talk endlessly, particularly on television, has earned the mockery of supporters such as Bill Maher. But on what may be the most important evolving events in a generation, Obama is silent.As hundreds of thousands of Iranians protest fraudulent elections, and demand...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on June 15, 2009 3 Comments

The Washington Post reports that the Iranian election outcome is consistent with its polling in Iran prior to the election. Not everyone is convinced by the Post numbers. Nonetheless, while noting the difficulty of polling in Iran, the Post article raises a interesting question.If...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on June 14, 2009 1 Comment

Jake Tapper reports:The White House has not issued a statement expressing support for the protestors declaring the election illegitimate. But neither has anyone in the Obama administration said a public word accepting the legitimacy of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's reelection. "We're reacting to concrete facts," a...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on June 14, 2009 0 Comments

Via Michael J. Totten (h/t Instapundit). Read Totten's entire post. It is heartbreaking, particularly the reports that the Iranian people are waiting for encouragement, at least spoken, from the U.S. Will Obama support the Iranian people, or the Regime? It could make all the difference in...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on June 14, 2009 0 Comments

I have to say, the left-wing blogosphere has been pretty responsible as relates to the Iranian election fraud.I've followed the posting via Memeorandum by Andrew Sullivan, Matthew Yglesias, Spencer Ackerman, Digby, Hilzoy, and others with whom I normally disagree. While I might not have their...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on June 14, 2009 2 Comments

When Barack Obama warmly greeted Hugo Chavez last April, Obama sent a message of despair to Venezuelans who sought freedom from Chavez's cult of personality. Any hope the Venezuelan opposition had of a near-term reversal of newspaper closings, political imprisonments, street intimidation, and nationalizations, died...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on June 13, 2009 4 Comments

Although most commentators predicted a close election in Iran, the official results show Mahmoud Ahmadinejad with a sweeping victory. There are many allegations of election fraud mostly as a result of the failure to require photo IDs and other voter identification, which permitted multiple voting:By...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on May 25, 2009 48 Comments

On May 20, 2009, John Bolton wrote an op-ed for The Wall Street Journal titled "Get Ready for Another North Korean Nuke Test" in which he noted that the complacency of the Obama administration about North Korea's nuclear ambitions (and Iran's) was misplaced:"The curtain is...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on April 07, 2009 12 Comments

Posted April 8, 2009 Newsweek magazine's cover proclaims The Decline and Fall of Christian America, while the article inside the cover proclaims The End of Christian America. The substance of the article doesn't really prove the headline, but the goal of whichever editor wrote the headline...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on March 22, 2009 1 Comment

While liberal bloggers like Ezra Klein are busy attacking good people like Ann Althouse, and liberal reporters run a secret JournoList to make sure they have their stories straight, an American reporter is rotting in an Iranian jail.The full story is at And So It...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on March 12, 2009 7 Comments

While the Obama administration considers pulling back on continuing to develop technology to provide a missile shield for Europe and beyond, the Iranians have made important developments in missile technology. This is not coming from Chas Freeman's dreaded Israel lobby, but from a Russian military...

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