Poor Iran

Watching the impending elections with hope, and seeing the awful theft and its aftermath makes me both sorry for the people of Iran yet proud they are trying to do something about it.

We saw pretty much nothing after the stolen US elections in 2000 and 2004 - perhaps partly because the GOP and Diebold were a little more subtle about it than Iran's rulers. Just a few thousand votes in a few Florida (2000) or Ohio (2004) counties, and George W was installed and retained. By and large, people seem to believe he actually won, both then and to this day.

About all we could muster in 2004 were a bunch of "Sorry Everyone" pictures, which unfortunately didn't stop the dreadful violence in Iraq or any other of the multitude of Bush II disasters.

Would a fair election and peaceful change of leadership in Iran fix the Mideast? No.. there are belligerents and grudges enough to last for a few thousand more years. But having even one country over there become a little less theocratic wouldn't hurt.

It's sad the US literally can't do anything about Iran's situation. Decades of meddling and in particular the last 8 years of George W have made us the anti-ally of democracy in the area. We can't even say stuff like "overthrow your oppressive regime" because everyone remembers what happened after George HW urged the Kurds to overthrow Saddam.

Then again, maybe there's something we can do. If instead of talking about being a beacon of light, we actually became (or returned to being) one, people over there would take notice and have one less country to demonize.