Ciao!

Those elections in Iran do remind me of those in Cuba. You can vote for anyone you want as long as it's Fidel. I think, however, the Iranians are worse off. Fidel doesnt have much time left and once he's gone, there wont be a leader with such charisma and reverence to dispell the discontent among the people.
Iranians however are under the mushroom cloud of Islamic extremism which, as you know, is fatally rigid.

Miguel..I need help. I'm listening to the news here. About the difficult reconstruction of Iraq...and about the Sadamist attacks and all this. They have told the guy in charge to hurry-the-fuck-up. I am starting to think we should get the fuck out. What am I missing here?

J. Edmond

Iraq is NOT the same as Iran. The US/UK quitting Iraq has little direct effect upon Iran. On the other hand it seems likely that a truely democratic Iraq will have an interesting effect on Iran - whether the US/UK can produce such a beast is unclear but it seems unlikely that quitting now will do anything other than let Iraq slide into anarchy, which is NOT a good thing.

Iran has elections - generally speaking your vote counts for small things but not for big ones. Unlike other countries in the region Iranians are used to the concept of voting and elections so there is continual pressure for the Mullahs to reform. A democratic Iraq adds significantly to the pressure - especially if it is a democratic but clearly Islamic country.

Agreed. Iran is worse off than Cuba. But the Iranian pro-democracy bloggers are growing. I wonder how long the Ayatollah's regime can keep it up.

And to answer the issue of US/UK quitting Iraq. I think that would be a horrible thing in the long run. Sure, we should hand over power to local authorities as quickly as we can (something we ARE doing). But the costs of staying are far outweighed by the benefits (a democratic Arab state). If you want to keep up w/ Iraq, read the blog Command Post.