Iran is located in the heart of the Middle East. Neighboring Iraq and Turkey on one side, Afghanistan and Pakistan on the other. Iran is also a major player in Middle Eastern politics. Since many American’s don’t know much about Iran I think it gets placed on the back burner. Well until these last elections. The Islamic Republic of Iran, I assume, liked not having publicity. They were able to grow economically because of their oil reserves and keep their hand in many other Middle Eastern States policies without getting attention from the West.
Now things have changed, the elections held in Iran some two weeks ago have brought an enormous amount of attention to the country. Pakistan, Iraq and Afghanistan have been the major places of contention, at least in U.S. news until now. The news channels are dominated by Iran.
Many people are criticizing the Obama administration for not making more of an effort to help those who are revolting in Iran or for not condemning the current President or system of power. President Ahmadinejad and Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei have criticized the United States for meddling in Iranian affairs. Sound contradicting? American’s are mad because Obama hasn’t done anything and the leaders of Iran are saying they’re mad because he’s doing too much.
There is a revolution going on in Iran. Not like the Revolutionary War when the United States revolted against the British. This is a revolution, evolving from years and years of oppression. We as American’s want everything now, now, now. We have evidence of what happens when we try to make a country be a democracy now, now, now. Iraq. Case and point. Forcing a country to make changes they aren’t ready for, whether those changes are positive or not, doesn’t work. Iraq is in shambles right now. The United States condemning Iran for the violence is a good thing, anything more than that could be very detrimental.
Now many will say we still need to do something, like support the people who are trying to revolt. Maybe in theory this is a good thing but we (meaning the U.S. Government) have done this before. After Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait and the United States pushed the Iraqi forces out, President Bush (the first George H. W. Bush) told the Kurds to rise up against Saddam, revolt, and you have our support. The Kurds revolted, got punched in the face, where was their big brother who promised support?
So now we can say we will support the younger generations, we just have to back up what we say. If we do support this revolution and we intervene, how is Iran going to be any different than Iraq? There is a natural evolution to many revolutions. England didn’t go from a Monarchy to a Democracy over night, why do we expect Iran to?
An overthrow of Ahmadinejad now would result in what? Mussavi as President? How different is Mussavi than Ahmadinejad? Not much, how much of a difference is there between Bill Clinton and Barack Obama? A little but not much. The United States could intervene, overthrow the current President and place Mussavi in. What would change?
If we, as American’s condemn the violence, but other than that keep out of it, the evolution will happen. It will happen from within the country, giving it the best chance for success. They will not be undermined because of U.S. involvement. The country will stay more stable than it’s neighbor to the West. Half of Iran’s population is under the age of 30. These are the people who are rising up against the current administration and system of power. These are the people who still want to be Muslim but don’t think it needs to be such a radical way of living.
In the weeks since the protests have begun there has been progress made. They aren’t going to hold a new election and they aren’t getting rid of how things are done, yet. Ahmadinejad has lost credibility and the Ayatollah has lost credibility all because they have offended half of their population. Iran knows this, the international community knows this and for Iran to compete they will have to evolve.
Maybe the evolution to a functioning democracy in Iran could take a very long time, 20 years, 25 years, nobody knows but the United States have been in Iraq for 8 or so years now. Is Iraq closer to a functioning democracy than Iran is? Where would you rather live, Iran or Iraq?
In my opinion, Iran is much closer to a functioning democracy, functioning international contributor, and a stabilizing force in an unstable region than is Iraq. Maybe for the world to succeed, the U.S. needs to be patients, aid when aid is needed but for the most part stay out of the way. Let Iran be Iran, the people of Iran like the United States, they have already started to move towards a better country, let them do it.
