Only one hardliner in Tehran has a chance at winning a seat, and he is in the last position.
There are two bodies – one that is widely elected, and a second that is chosen only among senior clerics. The system is far from perfect, but I bet a poll of Iranians would say that they think their election matters, unlike the vast majority of Americans.
Lifting the sanctions was the right thing for President Obama to do – economic forces and increased contact with the West will quickly undermine the authoritarian Islamic rule. Iran is not Afghanistan.
Iran is not buying Airbuses to fly into American skyscrapers. The derangement of Fox News and Drudge Report readers is growing to mass insanity. Iran had absolutely nothing to do with 9/11. The Air Force of Iran still flies US made aircraft. The Persian culture is not going away, no matter how much Benjamin Netanyahu and the King of Saudi Arsbia might want to fantasize about using nuclear weapons on Tehran.
I attended college with Iranian exchange students (during the Shah’s time) and understood that Iran is a modern economy with reasonable world views. It suffers from being a theocracy and that’s where the insanity comes in. The Ayatollahs are quite capable of skinning you cat and dog and they have sufficient funding to back terrorists everywhere. Not first line culpability, but I wouldn’t say they had nothing to do with 9/11 or any terrorist event. The theocracy thrives on the concept of the 12th Imam – Shia in extremis.
The more time that passes, the more the generation that remembered America as a friend will fade away. In my wild fantasy, I wish there was a way for the Persian culture to throw off the chains of Islam imposed on them by the Arabs.
Interesting data – the Persians were conquered and converted around 650 AD. Persia was just an empire prior to that with Zoroaster as a primary religion. So the conversion was completed around that time and they have been Islamic since. Good heavens – that’s a long time.
Islam is not only here to stay, but they are growing at tremendous pace. With the western leaders playing cheerleaders for Islam is no wonder. This cancer is invading the host countries in massive numbers. France and the UK are barely recognizable. In Paris, this epidemic throw their prayer rugs on the main intersections and stop traffic while they pray. What is happening is just unbelievable. I am glad old age doesn’t last long. I will never see the end game but we better start teaching Arabic in schools.
But unlike in Islam, women are “free”! (For a generation)
The reconquest of the Iberian peninsula wasn’t the result of the Crusades, but rather Germanic tribes from the north heading South and outbreeding the moors, and slowly taking over what we now call Spain and Portugal over several hundred years of unrestricted immigration and high birth rates.
Amen to what JayMar said. The EU is not much of anything anymore – merely a cesspool of the coming Caliphate.
Good thing Turkey is in NATO to protect Europe!
If the Bush/Clinton regime had had its way, Turkey would have been a member of the EU as well as NATO.