The Drunk Diplomat

Wow, we could possibly have a major geopolitical event on our hands here. If the opposition lead my Mousavi, Rafsanjani, and Khatamei can pull off a coup d’état of their own against Khamenei and Ahmadinejad…. then rapprochement with the U.S. is very likely. A new leader like Mousavi that was legitimately elected in Iran will give Obama plenty of maneuvering room for negotiations and face to face talks. It would be almost impossible to have a Camp David like situation where Obama and Ahmadenijad meet face to face for negotiations like Sadat and Begin had with Carter, however, a Mousavi – Obama meeting would be much more likely. The best coverage of the situation on the ground can be found at Andrew Sullivan’s The Daily Dish.

He is getting twitter feeds and emails from Iranians on the ground. His website is also hammering the main stream media for its lack of coverage and I agree. A regime change or revolution in Iran would be a huge deal to the United States. It would also be nice if the MSM gave a little background and context to the Iranian elections. I doubt most American’s know that Iran has elections, and women vote in those elections. Yet, there is no coverage or analysis on CNN, MSNBC, or Fox explaining the importance of the resistance in Iran, nor the implications the success or failure of the resistance will have on the Iranian nuclear program, Iranian support for Shia groups in Iraq, Iranian support for Hezbollah and Hamas, and the flow of oil in the world.

The Death of the Main Stream Media
The (fraudulent) election results came in on Saturday, but the major American news organizations were either slow or shallow with their coverage. Iran has been, and will be, a major story in the United States so I was very surprised that the coverage was so light. However, as events progressed on the ground in Iran, riots, protests, government shutting down cell phone and internet networks, Media 2.0 took over. Blogs, twitter feeds, facebook status updates, cell phone text messaging, etc. Raw data was flowing into the internet for the world to see and to rally support inside Iran. A kind of Pandora’s Box is opened when a country embraces the use of information technology. The “essence” of the internet is freedom of information. It is the ultimate Library at Alexandria, printing press, newspaper, organizational tool, and more, rolled into an ever expanding massive blob. As much as the mullahs try to censor the internet and cell phones people will find a way around them. I think it may be impossible to censor the internet due to it’s sheer size and variety.
The vast majority of Iranian citizens are under 30 and tech savvy. This crowd demands reform, voted in what they thought was a free, and it was stolen from them. Being young, using new powerful information technology to organize, and feeling cheated will ultimately lead to some change in Iran… Whether Mousavi becomes president, Khamenei is ejected as Supreme Leader by the Guardian Counsel, or something dramatically different happens is yet to me seen, but the winds are defiantly blowing the right direction for change.

Viva la Revolution!