12 February 2010

So Roger, is Iran a totalitarian state?

Reading the latest news from Iran, I cannot but be reminded of the definition of Iranian "flawed but vibrant democracy" by Roger Cohen, the NYT luminary. These judgment was announced about a year ago. With the addition of "Iran is an un-free society with a keen, intermittently brutal apparatus of repression, but it’s far from meeting these criteria [of a totalitarian state]".

So lets' take a look:

  • Mass arrests of protesters
  • Show trials
  • Execution of political prisoners as "enemies of God" (just replace "God" by "the people")
  • Jamming of foreign broadcasts
  • Closing of Internet services
Reminds you something? Eh, Roger?

4 comments:

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Lynne T said...

According to the Globe & Mail's new Op-Ed contributor, Doug Saunders, Iran isn't really a police state like East Germany, at least not until the June 2009 elections. He also applauded Iran for reducing it's birth rate from roughly 8 per family back in the 1980s to less than 2 at present.  Only an intellectual could fail to see that all that's happened is that the general population has been pushed to its limits by the Islamic Republic and all it represents and are challenging the sons of bitches even if it comes at the cost of imprisonment and worse.

SnoopyTheGoon said...

Well, it looks that Roger C. is not alone in his idiocy.

P.S. Where have you been for so long a time, Lynne?

jams o donnell said...

Iran, isn't Afghanistan, taliban style, but that is to damn it with faint praise. There is a huge groundswell for change in Iran which Khamenei can't stop (I hope).

Western pologists for the regime are simply vermin. On the other hand I would prefer a reat to the likes of Galloway or Milne!