The Beginning Of The End

The new demonstrations in Tehran suggest the street protests will fail.

Newsweek Web Exclusive
Jul 13, 2009

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  • Posted By: majykmyschyf @ 07/17/2009 3:18:18 PM

    Some how I think jbz and rezaA as ineffective plants in an effort to sway western opinion to favorable of the current regime but both are epic failures.

    • Posted By: rezaA @ 08/31/2009 9:09:10 PM

      somehow i think majykmyschyf as ineffective plants of the republican parties and conservatives such as john McCain and Rush Limbaugh, to sway western opinions against the iranian peoples and their struggle for democracy.
      i remember that before McCain began talking about Neda and Iranian's struggle for freedom, i remember that he used to chant "bomb bomb bomb bomb bomb iran", Neda and the iranian peoples might have been killed by those bombs in an alternate reality where john McCain had won and decided to invade iran. people like majykmyschyf are like the politicans john McCain who only use these events to sway western opinions and advance their political agendas against ther regime.

      http://www.huffingtonpost.com/leah-mcelrath-renna/mccain-and-iran---hypocri_b_219262.html

  • Posted By: GUNNEY @ 08/03/2009 7:21:03 AM

    Yo " isawthebrightshinies ", you are friggin' ass-hole and a half. much more than that; a rag-heaed nut-job, with no "clue", of luife in the USA...HA-Ha--"HOPEFULLY ALL THE REST OF THE IASLAMIC RAG-HEADS HAVE THE SAME "=" MENTALITY AND WILL BE FALLING BY THE WAYSIDE SOONER THAN YOU THINK PAL!!" GO SCREW YOURSELF AND YOUR "JUHADI BROTHERS ALSO"; DAMN CREPS ALL OF YOU SHOULD DROP DEAD AND WE CAN BE DONE WITH ALL THE bs YOU HAVE CAUSED AND ARE STILL TRYING TO CAUSE11

    r:d:

  • Posted By: JayBirdNY @ 07/15/2009 11:51:50 AM

    READERS OF NEWSWEEK: The author of this Newsweek article is a cousin of former Iranian President Khatami (FACT) and he is related to a number of people in the current regime. Newsweek is letting him get away with an outrageous act - acting as a mouthpiece of the Islamic Republic and essentially mirroring exactly what Ahmadinejad said about the protesters - that they were "dust". Clearly, to anyone watching around the world on any news outlet, the people of Iran are rallying for a free, open, transparent democracy - they have had enough of 30 years of Islamic theocratic tyranny. Reading the author's assertion that this is essentially a minor movement by some exile groups is like the Wizard of Oz saying "Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain." Shame, shame, shame on Newsweek for giving the author such a broad platform.

    • Posted By: rezaA @ 07/15/2009 8:15:05 PM

      JayBirdNY where is your evidence that he is a cousin of khatami? irregardless, the author didn't say that this is a minor movement by some exile groups, he said that thiis was a protest by a broad spectrum of iranians wanting their votes to be counted, but the exiled opposition groups used this as an opportuinty for their own political agendas (anti-regime protests with pre-revolutionary flags) this caused some of the protesters to stop protesting because they realized they were being supported by anti-regime FOREIGN-based opposition groups (which the government was against), and the government used it as a justification for a crackdown on protesters, which got smaller and is now down to merely students and young people because of hte exiled opposition group's actions
      Shame, shame, shame on Newsweek for giving JayBirdNY such a chance to comment

      • Posted By: isawthebrightshinies @ 07/17/2009 10:31:02 PM

        it's called freedom of speech; something that the iranian gov't obviously doesn't grasp. so why should an apologist of said goverment?

        • Posted By: rezaA @ 07/24/2009 10:14:18 PM

          no it's called propaganda to symphatize with one's side against the regime, so why should an oppositionist to the regime?

  • Posted By: Reza K @ 07/18/2009 5:43:54 PM

    Are you nuts? This analysis is crazy. Who says families where not present in demonstrations Thursday last week? My 55 year old father together with my mother had taken part, so had my 60 year-old uncle. Part of what is said here about Reza Pahlavi and MEK is very true, the other part about the success of propaganda is just misguided. I recommend that the author talk the a few people on the streets of Tehran before drawing conclusion about the facts on the ground. More than a million people took part in the Friday Prayers yesterday. Did you see the pictures? Those pictures alone are a testament to this analysis being misguided.

  • Posted By: jbz7879 @ 07/17/2009 11:45:01 PM

    AND REMEMBER THE OPERATION SANDSTORM WHEN THE MARINE CORPS CONQUERED IRAN IN AN AFTERNOON OF INVASION WITH THE CREAM OF AMERICAN CHOPPERS
    GOD BLESS IRAN

  • Posted By: kenfromillinois @ 07/14/2009 3:41:46 PM

    Of course, the US was of no help. *** Obama doesn't give a rats butt. Heck, he has ACORN to get his votes. The tyrants of the world are sure glad to see Obama. Russia, China, Iran, Venezuela, Somalia, .....

    • Posted By: isawthebrightshinies @ 07/17/2009 10:46:18 PM

      ...And how you you have Obama "help"? Perhaps we should invade (I mean it's worked out so well for us the last time)? Perhaps we could "win the hearts and minds" of the Iranian people by stunting their economic growth further? I mean it sure seems like they appreciate the "help" that it has brought thus far. Get your head out of your ass and stop being so bitter. Are you so wrapped up in an ideology that you can't see reality? I hope you're 8 years old because at least then you'll have an excuse for not remembering FAILED POLICIES THAT HAPPENED IN YOUR LIFETIME.

      Tea Party enthusiasts I swear...

  • Posted By: jbz7879 @ 07/17/2009 5:38:03 PM

    I THINK YOU IN THE WEST NEED TO LEARN TO ACCEPT THAT THE TIME YOU COULD NUKE JAPAN AND GET AWAY WITH THAT GENOCIDE HAS ENDED LONG AGO -AND YOU BETTER WALK YOUR DOGS AND TAKE THE ONE HOLIDAY PER ANNUM THAT YOUR ECONOMY HAS LEFT FOR YOU IF YOU ARE LUCKY ENOUGH TO BE EMPLOYED -

    WE SAW TIM BEGGING THE CHINESE FOR PENNIES JUST A FEW WEEKS AGO -

    IRAN IS NOT IN THAT DEGRADAED CATEGORY BECAUSE NEJAD IS MORE RESPECTABLE THAN THE BUSHES AND OBAMAS AND THE CORPORATES THAT RUN YOUR WESTERN DEGENERATE MISERY -BEYOND REDEMPTION OR DIVINE ABSOLUTION -PERVERTED TO THE CORE WITH PEEVISH BIGOTRY AND HATRED FOR ANYONE WHO DISAGREES WITH YOUR DIATRIBE

  • Posted By: jbz7879 @ 07/17/2009 5:32:19 PM

    western opinion does not even bother dogs and cats -
    OBAMA GOT THE BIGGEST SNUB FROM PUTIN WHO TOLD HIM TO BUGGER OFF -
    WHILE JINTAO LEFT THE USELESS G-8 AND ALL THOSE CORRUPT WESTERN POLITICIANS TO TASTE ITALIAN WINES -
    AS FAR AS I AM CONCERNED
    WHEN WEST PRAISES A MUSLIM FIGURE OR STATE -I USUALLY THINK -TRAITORS
    NOW YOU UNDERSTAND WHERE I COME FROM
    YOU ISLAMOPHOBIC GENOCIDAL TWATS
    HAVE YOU NOT KILEED ENOUGH VILLAGERS IN IRAQ -AFG YET
    VAMPIRES OF 2009
    AND AS FOR WHAT YOU THINK OF ME -
    I FRANKLY DO NOT GIVE A DAMN AS IF I CARE ABOUT YOUR HYPOCRITICAL NON CONSTITUTIONAL AUTOCRATIC TERRORIST YELPING DEMOCRACY

  • Posted By: jbz7879 @ 07/16/2009 12:53:51 PM

    most iranian western protestors were pre revolutionary elite exile -evil to the core who sucked iran like parasitic leeches under shah -it was also typically anti-islamic with islamophobia rampant like swine flu epidemic or more so -

    newsweek did as was directed by white house as CNN -i do not blame them as they are under state influence -

    the rest were pro-israelites who are absurd enough to think iran will really nuke israel -that is an idea only morons can breed as it is too silly to even discuss -lolz

  • Posted By: Trooper101st @ 07/17/2009 8:24:09 AM

    The only thing that will change Iran's leadership is ISRAELI bombs. Lord knows, they deserve it.

  • Posted By: jbz7879 @ 07/16/2009 12:47:22 PM

    most comments in favour of pro-moussavi were directed against the islamic revolution and islam itself -which did not surprise me as they were made by the evil exiled elite who sucked iran like leeches prior to the revolution and are typically supported by the western media as directed by washington

  • Posted By: jbz7879 @ 07/15/2009 9:52:42 PM

    lovely -failure adds to obamas charms and his public image as all he has attained is failures so far -god bless

  • Posted By: JayBirdNY @ 07/15/2009 11:46:57 AM

    READERS OF NEWSWEEK: The author of this Newsweek article is a cousin of former Iranian President Khatami (FACT) and he is related to a number of people in the current regime. Newsweek is letting him get away with an outrageous act - acting as a mouthpiece of the Islamic Republic and essentially mirroring exactly what Ahmadinejad said about the protesters - that they were "dust". Clearly, to anyone watching around the world on any news outlet, the people of Iran are rallying for a free, open, transparent democracy - they have had enough of 30 years of Islamic theocratic tyranny. Reading the author's assertion that this is essentially a minor movement by some exile groups is like the Wizard of Oz saying "Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain." Shame, shame, shame on Newsweek for giving the author such a broad platform.

    • Posted By: rezaA @ 07/15/2009 8:20:32 PM

      JayBirdNY where is your evidence that he is a cousin of khatami? irregardless, the author didn't say that this is a minor movement by some exile groups, he said that thiis was a protest by a broad spectrum of iranians wanting their votes to be counted, but the exiled opposition groups used this as an opportuinty for their own political agendas (anti-regime protests with pre-revolutionary flags) this caused some of the protesters to stop protesting because they realized they were being supported by anti-regime FOREIGN-based opposition groups (which the government was against), and the government used it as a justification for a crackdown on protesters, which got smaller and is now down to merely students and young people because of hte exiled opposition group's actions
      Shame, shame, shame on Newsweek for giving JayBirdNY such a chance to comment

  • Posted By: sarah38 @ 07/15/2009 11:25:22 AM

    I do not know how difficult is it to lessen to the loud voice of the protesters in Iran which they want a regime change, no more vote counting, they have lost their trust to this regime forever and they have not seen any good thing out of these regime, they want regime change, please do not try to mislead outside people with article like this one. If you are lobbying for the regime of Iran then your hand is involved in killing and you have to be prosecuted. Do you know any other opposition of Iran than MEK who are trying so vigorously to bring this regime to justice? if you know any then please let us know. Iranian people have sacrifies more than 120,000 people by execution by this regime , what makes you think then just want vote count. did you forget about mass execution that happend in 1988-89 in persion by this regime, more than 30000 political persioner were executed, do you think those people had no relative, friend or classmate? all of those persioner had some people and those people have some more friends that know about these mass execution, then what make you think that people just want regime change.
    stop lobbying for dictator, joine to people of iran and write about ture and promot democracy than dictatorship , do not be like Trita Parsi .

    • Posted By: rezaA @ 07/15/2009 8:08:09 PM

      well those wanting regime-change are the exiles and expats in the western world and some of the students and young people in iran, however these protests included iranians of a broad spectrum (like religios peoples and clerics) they didn't want regime change like the exiles outside iran but the meia showed it as such and iranian state-run media (along with western media) showed exiled opposition groups (monarchists and MEK) holding pre-revolutionary flags and shouting anti-regime slogans, which gave the government the chance and the justification to crack down on protesters by connecting them to the opposition exiled groups who want regime change, even though they want their votes counted.
      sarah38 if you support or are involved with the MEK then you are terrorist supporter that is inolved in mass killings of iranians and iraqi kurds, if you are lobbying for the terrorist MEK, your hand is involved in killing and you have to be prosecuted. the main opposition in iran is the reformist camp with their leader mir-hossein mousavi, the MEK is NOT an opposition group but a terrorist group that has little interest or support among iranians inside (and outside) iran, the first thing they care about is getting power, they don't give a damn about iranian peoples, if they did they would have stood with the protesters, not used them for their own political protests (pre-revolutionary flags, anti-regime protests) which only caused the government to crack down harder and doom the protests.
      their actions are against the tiranian people, and furthermore they are a pseudo-cult which fought iranians alongside the dictator saddam, which is why they hardly have support (if any)

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k05eBdc2iOI&feature=channel_page

  • Posted By: Myopic Observer @ 07/15/2009 6:09:28 PM

    I disagree with Mr. Majd on both analytical and factual fronts. He takes a snapshot of events, totally isolates it from its broader context, interprets facts in a warped manner, and then draws some far fetched conclusions. For his argument to hold, he has to reduce the whole plethora of issues to something mundane - such as a mere venting of "anger" by voters who "wanted to register their disapproval of what they believed to be a rigged vote. It was that simple."

    But actually, the situation is far from "that simple". Even without this recent election fiasco, the Iranian society was in deep turmoil and on a collision course with Ahmadinejad-Khamanei's policies (from student to women's rights to labor movements, and from ethnic and minority unrest to cultural clashes to disastrous economic mismanagement as just examples). The election fraud and the infighting of various factions within the Islamic Republic was only an outlet for all these tensions to burst forth. And this is but one element in the very complicated web of this crisis. So it is utterly disingenuous to reduce the current popular backlash to some "anger" over "rigged votes" that has taken second seat to worries about "foreign intervention".

    The previous regime also portrayed demonstrating masses as agents of foreign powers. Yet it fell. The previous revolution also went through periods of street calm. Yet it resurfaced with more force. The regime is fractured beyond the old "reformist versus fundamentalist-conservative" divide, with major cracks appearing within the fundamentalist-conservative camp. And there are signs of confusion among the ruling groups. A month after the election, the ruling clique has yet to drag any substantial number of people into the streets in its support. Given this last fact alone, it seems very bizarre that Mr. Majd is claiming that "the government is now winning the battle for the streets.???

    It would be foolish to predict the course of events in such a complicated situation. Indeed this movement might be quelled eventually and as such, Mr. Majd's prognosis for it might prove correct. But not because he has focused on pertinent symptoms, much less diagnosed the disease.

    I have written in more detail about the current crisis in my blog:
    http://myopicobserver.blogspot.com/

  • Posted By: SarahPars @ 07/15/2009 5:13:02 PM

    For all those monarchists, MEK terrorists and whoever else that has manipulated the genuine protests in Iran to its own cause, I have a message: You all are dictators and don't know and don't want democracy, so shut up! You can't stand anyone who oppose your views and brand them as Islamic Republic lover and mullah agents, so there is no difference between you and Ahmadinejad and his allies, and in fact you're all the flip side of the same coin.

    You can't even stand an American news outlet voicing various sides and your quick attack right now proves my point exactly! So, shut up and stop pretending like you really want freedom when you don't know the first thing about it!!

  • Posted By: jbz7879 @ 07/15/2009 11:48:03 AM

    YESTERDAY AN IRANIAN FRIEND STARTED TO ARGUE WITH AN IRANIAN WOMAN OVER IRAN AND NEJAD -SHE WAS WEARING HARDLY ANYTHING AND EVERY OTHER MAN WAS BUSY CHECKING HER ANATOMY OUT WHILE SHE WAS RAGING ABOUT NEJAD AND THE CLERICS .
    I THINK USUALLY THE SLUTS IN SOHO HAVE MORE ON THAN THIS IRANIAN REVOLUTIONARY -
    SHE DIVULGED AMONGST OTHER KNOW HOW THAT SHE DID NOT HATE ISLAM -WHICH BROUGHT A HOWL OF BELLY LAUGHTERS FROM THE ONLOOKERS IN THE CAFE IN MARBLE ARCH -
    SHE THEN PROCEEDED TO TELL US ABOUT HER FAMILY FORTUNE IN IRAN B4 1989 AND HOW THE CLERICS HAD GIVEN IT TO THE POOR DEVILS WHO ARE ALL MUSLIMS -
    SHE OF COURSE HAS NEVER BEEN TO IRAN YET SHE HAS A VOTE WHICH THE SAME DEMONIC CLERICS ALLOW HER TO EXERCISE -
    A TITAN TALE TO REMEMBER -
    WITH A MORAL TOO -
    ALL THAT LOOKS IRANIAN IS NOT IRANIAN BUT RATHER IRRELEVANT INSOUCIANCE -
    I DID NOT PARTAKE IN THE DISCUSSION AS I NEITHER WAS IMPRESSED BY THE AUDIO OR THE VISUAL
    ALLAH MUAFI -GOD FORGIVE ME

  • Posted By: jbz7879 @ 07/15/2009 11:40:25 AM

    BEFORE THE WINTER OF 2009 FINISHES -
    THE AFGHAN OFFENSIVE FOR WHICH USA HAD BORROWED HEAVILY FROM CHINA WILL HAVE FAILED MISERABLY AND OBAMA WILL BE LUCKY IF HE IS NOT CRUCIFIED -
    AS FOR IRAN IT WILL FLOURISH AND THE HARLOTS WHO ARE WRITING ABOUT NEJAD ARE THE ILLICIT OFFSPRINGS OF THE EVIL SHAH WHO WERE EXPORTED TO THE AMERICAN INFERNO ALONG WITH THAT SUPER ARCH VILLAIN .
    REGARDS AND ENJOY NEJADS RISE TO METEORIC POWER AND YOU KNOW WHAT -
    NOT ONE OF YOUR DIATRIBES OR CONSPIRACY IS GOING TO AFFECT ANYTHING INSHALLAH .
    BURN IN YOUR OWN HELL HAPPILY

  • Posted By: Veronique Mahalati @ 07/15/2009 11:09:33 AM

    Dear Sir,
    Not certain on what authority Mr. Majd claims ???most [Iranians] didn't want the destruction of their system." As far as I could see many thousand Iranians demonstrated great courage, put their lives on the line and dared slogans of their vile distaste for the regime! In an affront to our Neda???s the author opines differently, sarcastically referencing young demonstrators driving $100,000 SUV's! Many of us find this dismissive tenor towards the global media support of the Iranian cause "suspect," wandering who in fact is more effectively promoting and serving Tehran's propaganda machine: The international media; our courageous Neda???s; the vocal Iranian opposition; or dismissive pontificators such as Mr. Majd, who by the way should disclose his relations with a number of the clerical leaders of Tehran?

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