Early this morning, the Ayatollah - Iran's "Supreme Leader" - gave a speech to the country. And so after 6 days of sincere protesting and justified outrage, it all fizzles out and ends today. All it took was to remind the Iranian people that their enemies are the Americans and the Jews. "Oh yeah! What were we thinking? Death to American! Allah Akbar!"
It's just so predictable. Just like I thought, Iran's "Supreme Leader" would blame all the protesting and doubting of election results on a zionist american capitalist plot, yadda yadda.... everything is the west's fault. At the same time, listening to The Ayatollah's speech on CNN early this morning (assuming the English translation was correct), I couldn't help but be reminded of a typical George W. Bush speech.
For example, "Vote rigging is against the law, therefore there was no vote rigging." Sound familiar? "Torture is against the law, therefore America did not torture." Has ipse dixit always been the hallmark of a stupid leader, or is this a recent phenomenon?
And he also blamed terrorists. Have terrorists become the boogeyman of the Islamic world, too? He said something to the extent of "The people should not protest in the streets, because if a terrorist wants to attack, that would be the perfect time for him to do so, and then the blood would be on all the hands of the protesters." That is, if you support the protests, you support terrorism. This guy owes George W. Bush some serious royalties.
At first I couldn't tell if the Iranian people listening to the Ayatollah's speech were responding to his statements by screaming in outrage, or by screaming in support. But it didn't take too long for it to become clear that they were all agreeing with him, like the sheep they are. "Death to America, Death to Jews, Death to England...."
So, will the Iranian people be satisfied with the extremely questionable election results? Will they let go of the allegations of fraud and cheating, satisfied that everything is the fault of the Americans, the English, and the Jews? You betcha'.
And what about the Ayatollah's silly response to the election fraud allegations - "How can you say there was cheating with an 11 million vote difference? Maybe with a 1,000 vote difference or a 100,000 vote difference there could be cheating, but not 11 million votes! No way!" Hah! Obviously it goes without saying that this flawed logic assumes the 11 million vote difference was not the result of fraud and cheating (if you're gonna cheat, cheat big). But will the Iranian people be smart enough to think that way? Can they analyze the words of their Supreme Islamic Leader with the smallest iota of cynicism, especially in the face of an angry tirade against the usual outsider/western/Zionist suspects? Probably not - certainly not enough to allow the protests to continue with any serious momentum.
So, chalk up another win for religion and another loss for freedom. Though like last week's election in Iran, it's never a fair contest.
I'm sure a few people will continue to protest, nowhere near the numbers as over the past 6 days. Now the crackdowns will begin, and I hope there won't be too many people beaten and slaughtered.
I'm basing my prediction about the end of the uprisings on the crowd's reaction during the Ayatollah's speech. No matter what the issue and no matter how egregious the harm done to them, angry Muslims can always be controlled and subjugated by mere reference to the western powers and the Zionists. It reminds me of Dog Whisperer Cesar Millan snapping and saying "tsssst!" to an angry dog. Anyone can be a Muslim Whisperer - just say "Quiet down - blame America and Israel - remember who you're supposed to hate! Tsst!" That puts "dominant and aggressive" Muslims in a "calm and submissive state" (to borrow from Cesar Millan), and that's apparently extremely easy for fellow Muslims to do. Just claim to have more authority from Allah than the rest of them and you're automatic Islamic "Pack Leader." (No, I'm not saying "Muslims are dogs" - I just find it amusing how similarly and easily religious fundamentalists and canines can be controlled by a dominant figure).
I sincerely hope I'm wrong. I hope the Iranian people continue to protest in larger and larger numbers, and I hope they don't buy into the "Supreme Leader's" same old story of blaming the usual suspects. I'd like to think that the Iranian People are smarter than that, especially the younger generations. But I don't think most of them they are. We'll see.