It's The Votes That Count 06-28-09 mpg Website editor's special editorial comment Articles regarding Iran's recent election may appear on this site praising or criticizing President Mahmud Ahmadinejad or Mir Hossein Mousavi. There are many judgments that can be made about these two men and their policies, there are many opinions that can be offered, but the only important factor regarding this particular electoral controversy in Iran is whether the votes were correctly counted or not. This is a concept that has to be strenuously emphasized to both the so-called self-described "left/liberals" and "right/conservatives" especially in the Judeo-Anglo-American blog-sphere. So please read the next sentence very carefully. Other than the right to have your vote correctly counted, assuming all the candidates involved are allowed to run freely and fairly (there was very little controversy about this point prior to this election) there is one and only one other way to change the composition of a government....through the barrel of a gun, by shooting people or threatening to shoot them. This is true in Iran as well as any other country including the United States of America, to change a government you either have a process of voting, or you have a process of violence, coup d'états, sanctions, bombings and invasions. It is the vote, and only the vote, IF freely garnered, freely given and correctly counted that is the determinate means to effectuate a peaceful change in a given government's composition. In the end, after it's all said and done, the only other method is the barrel of a gun. It is of course any people's right to appose a government through demonstrations to demand changes to unjust laws and policies, or if it becomes necessary, to engage in violence if and only if a people's unalienable rights have been abridged or violated or they're votes were not allowed to be freely tendered and correctly counted. However Iran appears up to this point to have effectuated a free and fair election, using verifiable paper ballots that were correctly and accurately counted and no one has come forward from the opposition to state that their unalienable rights have been abridged or violated or that they’re protesting to correct unjust laws. In fact they've already repeatedly stated they're protesting to change the outcome of an election. They can only morally do this if they feel their votes weren’t properly counted. The opposition is carrying out their protests while a coalition primarily made up of Anglo-American countries has for the last two decades proceeded to rain unprecedented death and destruction upon tens of millions of people throughout the Middle East resulting in the complete destruction and occupation of two countries which border Iran, the deaths of well over a million people, the displacement of millions more, hundreds of billions worth of damages and even while you read this article are engaged in the process of destroying a third country which borders Iran. This coalition is ostensibly committing all of these terrible atrocities in order to attack various groups of people in the Middle East they consider a threat. Strangely enough this coalition lavishly supported these very same groups for decades and in some cases continues support them on and off to this very day. They have also during these last thirty years expressed unrelenting hostility toward Iran, engaged in a massive campaign of propaganda, harassment, sanctions and documented terrorism toward its government and its people. They have done all these things according to principals as outlined in the Defense Planning Guidance, A Project for a New American Century and a Clean Break. Yet through it all Iran has continued to hold free and fair elections. So here we are, Iran has not invaded, bombed, occupied or carried out coup d'états against any country. Iran has never supported any of the groups the coalition is currently attacking. Iran has held what appears to be eleven free and fair elections. And yet hundreds of bloggers essentially say Iran's current government should be destroyed for what appears to be trivial reasons without bothering to discuss the process of Iran's elections or whether the votes during these elections were freely and fairly counted. By doing so they advocate the barrel of a gun. By doing so they essentially state that all of the deaths, destruction, pain and suffering that have so far taken place in the Middle East at the hands of the Anglo-American coalition according to plans this coalition hatched years ago are irrelevant to them. Including the longed planned for destruction of Iran's current government. This is a totally unacceptable, indefensible and monstrous position to take. It is in point of fact illegal. The United States of America, along with the entire Middle East has suffered for eight long terrible years because votes cast in this country were not properly counted when they should have been. The United States of America to this very day is still unable and unwilling to implement a paper ballot system anywhere near as reliable as Iran's due to the deliberate interference of people who believe votes don't matter and that the electoral process is there to be manipulated for the purposes of those in power. We've all had enough of that. As such articles that do not address the accuracy of Iran's electoral process for the purposes of this controversy, and instead essentially advocate the violent overthrow of its elected government may not be posted. Websites posted on Reficultnias which do not address these issues in regards to this controversy may be removed. - mpg |