Khamenei's Speech: Invoking the West

Khamenei's speech made numerous references to the West: the US, the EU, the UK and Israel. Using this translation and the "find" function in my web browser, I'm going to try to find all the references to the US. Why? Because I want to demonstrate that Obama's policy of basic silence on this matter is the correct stance to take.

First he says, "The Zionist, American and British radio are all trying to say that there was a competition between those who support and those who didn't support the state - everyone supported the state." By "everyone" Khamenei means all the candidates. He is complaining that the Western media is saying that the dispute between Ahmadinejad and Mousavi is a dispute between those who want to preserve the state and those who want to overturn it. He's saying that that's simply untrue. Notice what he's trying to do here. He's trying to force people in the opposition to acknowledge, even if only in their hearts, that they don't want to overturn the state. He's saying, "You don't want to be like the Americans or the Zionist dogs do you? You don't want to overturn the state." It seems like such a small thing he's asking the Iranians to acknowledge, but this is actually a very important psychological move. He's trying to get people to draw lines in their own mind and say to themselves, "Well, I may protest, but I'm sure not gonna cross that line!" He's trying to keep protests from turning into a revolution. So Khamenei agrees with me that revolution is in fact in the air, and he's trying to stop it, invoking powerful images of the evil Wicked Witch of the West to do so.

Next, he says, "First, before the elections, their [US and EU] media orientation and their statements made was they wanted to cast out the hearts of the people a feeling that the election was useless to cut the turn out..." His point here is that prior to the election, Western media was trying to convince people in Iran not to bother voting, because the election was largely meaningless. He goes on to praise the huge 85% turnout on election day, praising Iran for proving the Wicked Witch of the West wrong. Then he goes on to say that when the evil West saw the results (the protests), that they saw an opportunity, and their masks came off and they revealed their true nature.

He said, "a number of heads of states and other leaders of EU and America made statements that clarified the true nature of those leaders. It was said on behalf of the US president that he was waiting for a day that people came out to streets." What he's saying here is not entirely clear to me. President Obama said no such thing, nor nothing that implied it. Yet notice how he says that someone said it on behalf of the President. See how careful Obama must be in what he says? So even though publicly Obama has said that there isn't much difference for the US between the candidates, Khamenei is trying to impute statements to him. He's trying to associate him with the opposition movement. He is a seasoned veteran deceiver and his rhetoric seems pretty powerful to me. It's easy for people who don't know better to believe this stuff. But it's even easier if there's actual sound bites and video footage of President Obama saying things in favor of one side or the other. He goes on to blame European and American "agents" on the "riots" vandalism and starting fires, etc. But a picture is worth a thousand words:

Then Khamenei gets bizarre. He said, "An American Zionist capitalist some time ago claimed that he had spent ten million dollars and created velvet revolution in Georgia. They are comparing the Islamic Republic with GEORGIA!?" Now, that's very odd, because the Velvet Revolution is the name for the "Gentle Revolution" that happened in the old Czechoslovakia in 1989. Understanding exactly what he means is probably impossible. He is, after all, a madman. But his point isn't so hard to understand. He's trying to say that the US has already admitted to being involved in a revolution involving Muslims, and he's saying that WE are saying that we'll be more than happy to do the same thing here. Our capitalist greed by which we amass wealth to ourselves will be put to use in service of buying a revolution in Iran. He's just trying to build suspicion in the hearts of the gullible. Now, at first gloss, we might say, ah, what a loon, and blow him off. It's much harder for Iranians to just blow him off, even if they think he's out to lunch. He's like the Pope in Iran. He's the Supreme Leader of the whole country. It's hard to just ignore him. And yet I think many will, because he does not cite evidence for it. He only says that someone, somewhere, once upon a time, made some claim....they are paranoid rantings of a madman, and anyone with common sense can see that.

He goes on to say that Americans have no moral high ground because we are oppressing the people of Iraq and Afghanistan, and...then there was that Waco, Tx incident: "What is the worst thing to me in all this are comments made in the name of human rights and freedom and liberty made by American officials they said that we are worried about Iranian nations WHAT? Are you serious? Do you KNOW what human rights are?! Who did that in Afghanistan? The wars and bloodshed Who is crushing Iraq under its soldier's boots? in Palestine? Who supported the Zionists? even inside America During the time of the democrats Time of Clinton 80 people were burned alive in Waco? Now you are talking about human rights?" I leave it to the reader to sort this out.

Well, my whole point is just to say that in Iran, it's kind of cool to invoke the West, especially the US. However, there is one very unusual thing about Khamenei's speech. There's one place where we would have thought he would mention the US, but he didn't.

He said, "I will tell you, diplomats of other countries in the past few days have taken away their masks and showing their true image. The most evil of them all is the British Government." Now I'm sure that when he said that, the Brits were positively choking on their crumpets and reaching for their tea to wash it down. But notice that for once it wasn't the US who was named as the most evil. I think that's significant, given the fact that Iran is literally surrounded by US troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not proud of the US that we're somehow thought of not quite so badly by an evil dictator. Far from it. Nonetheless, it shows that the US is a little bit less of a "political football" as Obama called it. This is good. It means Obama is successfully avoiding fueling Khamenei's rhetoric. It's a little bit harder for him to paint the opposition as another "velvet revolution in Georgia". Stop that giggling.

Khamenei's Speech: Why don't you believe me?

If you want to read about the most significant point of the speech, and to know what speech I'm talking about, see here.

The second thing in the speech I'd like to talk about is Khamenei's discussion of the election results. It would be funny if it weren't so tragic and wicked.

"If the difference was 100,000 or 500,000 or 1 million, well, one may say fraud could have happened. But how can one rig 11 million votes?" Khamenei asked.

OH! So THAT'S why he rigged the results in such a ridiculous fashion! 11 million made up votes can't be wrong!

But it's obvious it was rigged.

Khamenei's Speech: Prelude to a Bloodbath

Today is Friday, sort of the Islamic Sabbath (not really, but for Westerners it's a helpful analogy). Today, Supreme Leader Khamenei gave a sermon at Tehran University, where ironically, just a few days ago a number of students were beaten at random and some were killed.

Here are my sources on this historically important speech: The NY Times, Amnesty International, Aljazeera, the Huffington Post here and here, and here's an English translation of the speech. However, most important of all is this brilliant piece from the Council on Foreign Relations (never mind the date - it's been updated to reflect the speech).

All of these sources are worth reading, but you should definitely read the piece from the CFR. In fact, I'd rather you read that piece than this blog post. It's absolutely brilliant and spot on. (It's pretty much everything I've been saying.) But I'm still going to post about the speech anyway.

The most significant thing about the speech is that it contained a warning to the opposition that they should get ready for a bloodbath. Everything I've read about the speech agrees on that point.

Some think this will bring the protests to an end. That's simply untrue. Events of the last couple of days shows us that violence only strengthens the opposition. Not only that, but the CFR piece reminds us of what happened 30 years ago when the Shah of Iran cracked down on the opposition violently: protests "mushroomed".

Listen, I don't like violence anymore than you do. Violence is evil and bad. It should be avoided. But revolutions are always founded on the blood of martyrs. What revolution has ever happened in the history of the world that hasn't had much blood shed to accompany it? Our own Revolutionary War cost many lives, as did our Civil War, which was arguably revolutionary.

But listen: let's not have an American knee-jerk reaction to the violence in Iran. Rather, let us sit in quiet awe of the bravery of the Iranian people who valiantly strap on their green ribbons and walk out their front door to face they know not what in the streets where they live. Let us watch with tears in our eyes, and let us pray that it will all be over soon, and that the Supreme Leader will fall, and his office with him. The Iranian people think that that's worth dying for. I agree with them. Once upon a time, Americans thought there were some things worth dying for. So let us sit back and watch respectfully and honorably as a courageous people reinvent themselves at tremendous cost.

There will be much more violence to come. Let us not lose heart at this critical time. The Iranian people will need our support and encouragement, not our cries to bring it all to an end. Such cries will only make them lose heart when they need it most.

And how are the protesters reacting? The Huffington Report says, "In reaction to Khamenei's address hours later, cries of 'Death to the dictator! and 'Allahu akbar!' ('God is great!') resounded from rooftops throughout Tehran after dark - similar to other nights this week following rallies supporting reformist candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi."

What do they mean "dictator"? Who are they referring to: Ahmadinejad or Khamenei? I rather think it's Khamenei, since, after all, they have not been saying that all week, but this is clearly in reaction to Khamenei's speech. That the people have been crying "God is great!" from the rooftops is pregnant with meaning. This was what they did 30 years ago in rebellion against the Shah. This is an Islamic creed, a profession of faith. At the same time, it is a crying out to God for justice. No matter what your religious conviction, the video below is moving when seen in this light.

Revolution is brewing in Iran.