Nonviolent protest continues across Iran as people chant : "Referendum, referendum, this is the people's slogan".
by: Mozhgan Savabieasfahani
February 12, 2010
On Palestine Think Tank at:
The coup d'etat government of Iran must step down and the constitution must be rewritten according to the wishes of the people. That is what the people of Iran are demanding on the 31st anniversary of their 1979 revolution.
For the eighth straight month, hundreds and thousands of Iranians filled the streets of their country, to reclaim their lost revolution. Their voices were calmer and more confident, despite the larger presence of security forces on the streets (who were surprisingly less aggressive against the protestors than in November of 2009). No burning cars or buses, no overturned police cars, and no takeover of police kiosks was seen today.
There was also no roughing up of the security forces or throwing stones at them. The people have gained too much experience and self-confidence to be turned back now.
A YouTube video, taken by the demonstrators, shows a protestor calling on an unenthusiastic security policeman to return and talk. Green is the color of this revolution. Eyewitness accounts tell of a young girl who refuses to relinquish her green winter scarf to a security officer, and of a passerby who offers to give the officer her green underwear instead. New chants were also heard today, the most significant of which were: "Referendum, referendum, this is the people's slogan"; and "Political prisoners must be freed".
The health and progressive maturity of the Iranian green movement can easily be recognized by these few slogans alone.
How do you suppose the "freedom and democracy"-loving West greets such a clear and confident display of maturing democratic energy in Iran and the Middle East? A quick look at the headlines of the mainstream western media will leave you dumbfounded.
Monstrous photos of staged government rallies are splashed across the entire spectrum of the Western media. Many Iranians attest that the government rally was imported, in comfy buses, from across Iran. The BBC (which most Iranians listen to or read), the Independent, the Associated Press, Reuters, the Washington Post, CNN, and the New York Times, have obsessively focused on the perpetually bogus Western discussion of a "nuclear Iran". Such a response to an unparalleled, grassroots, democratic, movement in Iran begs this question: "is the West really interested in democracy in the Middle East? Or are the Western powers more interested in submerging the Middle East in wars and chaos, to more easily suck out its oil?"
The U.S., together with other Western powers, finances illegal military occupations over 50 million inhabitants of the Middle East (Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine). Did you know that every single U.S. occupying soldier costs $390,000 per year to maintain? But wait, the U.S. still has money to prop up the fabulously corrupt government of Pakistan, too. That government turns a blind eye while Obama butchers Pakistanis mercilessly, using dreaded drone attacks. A green and democratic Iran will have a tremendously positive impact on the entire region, inspiring millions to toss out their archaic U.S. puppet regimes. Yes, we can!
However, the U.S. armed forces have permanently poisoned the region with URANIUM bombs. They have been killing millions. They enforce military dictatorship over many more millions. They have already given $300 billion to Israel as it savagely bombs and starves Palestine. (Gaza's crime was to try and democratically elect its own government, remember?) This is all being done by the commander in-chief of two military occupations in the Middle East, Mr. "peace-loving" Obama himself. He hardly bothered to wipe the blood off his hands when he picked up his Nobel Peace Prize. Seeing the tremendous leap forward by the people of Iran towards a democratic future, Mr. Obama continues his old warlike rhetoric against Iran. Simultaneously, he tightens the deadly grip of sanctions on the people of Iran, as they fiercely fight for democracy in their own land. Then he dares to say that he supports freedom and democracy. Freedom and democracy my ass, Mr. President!
Mr. Obama: Take your hundreds of thousands of high-tech soldiers out of the Middle East. Stop drone attacks on the people of Pakistan. Stop funding the most racist state in existence today (Israel) before you ever dare to speak of "freedom and democracy" for Iran.
You, Mr. Obama, are all about oppression. You send armies to enforce the most violent, unsustainable way of life on earth. If the people of Iraq and Afghanistan and Palestine and Iran don't stop your death machine, then your own destruction of the planet will stop you. Let us hope it will not be the planet that collapses under the weight of your massively toxic and brutal way of life. Let us hope the people will prevail and save the Earth.
