Humanity
by zunguzungu
It almost makes me ashamed to know I share a species with the people who, having long championed turning Tehran into a glass parking lot, now have the gall to declare solidarity with the Iranian protesters.
In writing about “The ‘Bomb Iran’ contingent’s newfound concern for The Iranian People” Glenn Greenwald points out that:
“Much of the same faction now claiming such concern for the welfare of The Iranian People are the same people who have long been advocating a military attack on Iran and the dropping of large numbers of bombs on their country — actions which would result in the slaughter of many of those very same Iranian People. During the presidential campaign, John McCain infamously sang about Bomb, Bomb, Bomb-ing Iran. The Wall St. Journal published a war screed from Commentary‘s Norman Podhoretz entitled “The Case for Bombing Iran,” and following that, Podhoretz said in an interview that he “hopes and prays” that the U.S. “bombs the Iranians.” John Bolton and Joe Lieberman advocated the same bombing campaign, while Bill Kristol — with typical prescience — hopefully suggested that Bush might bomb Iran if Obama were elected. Rudy Giuliani actually said he would be open to a first-strike nuclear attack on Iran in order to stop their nuclear program. Imagine how many of the people protesting this week would be dead if any of these bombing advocates had their way — just as those who paraded around (and still parade around) under the banner of Liberating the Iraqi People caused the deaths of hundreds of thousands of them, at least.
Hopefully, one of the principal benefits of the turmoil in Iran is that it humanizes whoever the latest Enemy is. Advocating a so-called “attack on Iran” or “bombing Iran” in fact means slaughtering huge numbers of the very same people who are on the streets of Tehran inspiring so many — obliterating their homes and workplaces, destroying their communities, shattering the infrastructure of their society and their lives. The same is true every time we start mulling the prospect of attacking and bombing another country as though it’s some abstract decision in a video game.”
On the other hand, this make me almost proud to be a human being.
Peter Levine: “In this remarkable video from Italian TV, Iranian motorcycle police attack a group of peaceful protesters. The protesters respond with stones and manage to turn at least one motorcycle into a flaming wreck. You can then see them escort the lightly wounded police officer to safety and give him water. The informal rule that seems to have developed is: Hurt the machines, love the human beings.”
zunguzungu 
I trust you’ve been following this? Mr. Pitney got some love from Rachel Maddow on MSNBC yesterday (“thank you! get some sleep!”), and is tireless.
It is all completely amazing.
The amount of information out there is really incredible, actually, though it’s difficult to separate the trivia (“x number of protesters portesting at y street in z city”) from the truly historic stuff that’s happening. I think I’m most excited at the idea that this might represent a transformation of the Iraian revolution, which was — as has been pointed out — about overthrowing the shah first and only about installing theocracy second (or, rather, it came to be controlled by that sizeable element that *was* only about theocracy). The heterogeneity of the original anti-shah movement, though, seems better represented by the kind of incoherant populism we’re seeing in the streets, and whatever Mousavi’s intentions are or have been (this guy’s somewhat pessimistic, for example) there is real potential for something really good to happen here.
Sorry for an unrelated comnmet, but me and my wife will stay in Korea (mostly in Seoul, also in the Busan area) from mid-September to April/May. Why not drop me an e-mail (antti dot leppanen at gmail dot com) so we could get together soon.