I suppose we should also congratulate them when they poured into the streets "in masses" to support Khomeini. Have you seen how many turned out to welcome "Emam" back to Iran? 

Firedup: 

I would be lying if I told you that I don’t share the same feeling as you on this subject.  I consistently and not just during this election but for many years have believed and advocated that the boycott of the election is the right course of action in Iran. But I also tell myself that I don’t live there and would not know exactly, as they do, how does it feel living with no hopes, therefore I MUST respect the choices and feeling of the masses.  These celebrations are obviously not staged by the regime and they are on their own free will, so to me not accepting their voice is to betray them just as they were betrayed four years ago. 

Amir:

Absolutely, only to remind them of how they ruined afterwards.

Mehrdad

Mehrdad jan

You are beginning to show your real motives particularly when you added that last line in your otherwise semi-logical write up.

So all i have to say is this: how dare u, HOW DARE You, call those who did not vote or did not care to vote, and classify them under the category of not having the slightest regards for the iranians and their welfare. 

Sure. I guess only you would know that! This whole campaign of encouarging to vote regardless of whether they want the regime or not, or just for the sake of voting is getting to look a bit like A Fascistic campaign to FORCE PEOPLE to do something and redicule and insult them if THEY DON't.

what a shame:)

The problem with you people is that You only see those come out on the streets and refuse to even bother with those who have not. Did you even care to think about that? 

Firedup:

Doesn’t truly accepting their choice mean to congratulate them on their win, isn’t that what is customary here for the civilized people? 

DM aziz:

Hold on your horses, you are reading , as usual, far more into this than it has been stated.  For one thing, you are here multiple times a week and insinuating you know Iranians and what is best for them because you live there.  If you don’t mind that is rather arrogant if not foolish. 

If you had or care to follow any of the discussion prior to yesterday vote, you will see my consistent advocacy was for NOT VOTING in this charade.  This blog is to say to have a decency to accept the people’s choice not to be a sore loser and write blogs  such as this one.

Now I missed it, what was my “real motive”

Mehrdad

We are always on the side of the people. WE are the people. The question is whether Rohani is the best choice to be our president. The point is that the best candidate among the candidate approved by the Council of Guardians is not the best person to lead Iran on the road to democracy and prosperity. Is it idealistic, unfair or wrong to want the best for our country?

If there is one lesson to be learned from the history of the last 35 years it is that: the majority was always wrong!

"The minority is sometimes right; the majority always wrong". George Bernard Shaw

Mehrdad

why are you using diversionary tactics?

Would you go back and look at how you ended your blog?? here let me help you a bit here:

Of course this is only for those who have the slightest regards for the Iranian people’s wish and well-being.

Which means that techniqually you are separating those whom in your mind care about this stupid election and those who do not! and then in your reply to me you call my postion arrogant / borderline foolish, even though earlier in this same post you confessed you are not here and don't know what is going on here. Well let me tell you. I AM HERE and I KNOW what goes on WHY? because i hear it round the clock every god damned day and night. 

You wanna call that arrogance / foolish be my guest buddy.

Nobody is being a sore loser here.  People have chosen with their spoken words not with bunch of "kaghaz pareh" that they throw in those chinese-made , rediculous looking ballot boxes. People have stated numerous times that they want IRI gone, That is the real choice, IF YOU had bothered to listen. So to say that by electing some akhoond as president they have made a CHOICE! is really nonsensical.

JJ

Correction; YOu are on the side of CERTAIN KINDS Of people dude. Not all of them

You KNOW rohani plays no part in this whole circus regardless how many hours we spend here discuss the circumstances surrounding his election and all the whats and whys that go with it.

Here is the thing though: we will not get the best for our country so long as we are dealing with this system. Why are you mixng up different points???

Roger jan

Thank you for making perfect sense.

Thank you DM jan. Iranians' participation in the recent elections and their jubilations over its outcome resemble members of a community who have been deprived of healthy food and clean water for a long time but have a choice between breaking free from their ordeal or consuming polluted water and rotten food in order to survive for a few more days. They have "elected" to follow the second option. They have preferred an easy choice that may carry them through for a short while but will cenrtainly end up in their demise over to an equally risky choice that may still end up in their demise but there is also a good chance in freeing them from their misery.  

Their rationale beggars belief.

Please look at the following link (page 111 from Behzad Yaghmaian's book "Social Change in Iran") to see how Rouhani proclaimed in 1999 that student demonstrators should be "crushed mercilessly and monumentally"):

http://books.google.com/books?id=5eb1G8-f-o0C&pg=PA111&lpg=PA111&dq=%22crush+mercilessly+and+monumentally%22&source=bl&ots=Ws6CrqgdLi&sig=-v1q_6VeTbH9C4B0wnh8E0c2Acc&hl=en&sa=X&ei=Im6-UbrqFsXH4AOw6YDYDw&ved=0CC8Q6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=%22crush%20mercilessly%20and%20monumentally%22&f=false

Roger jan

I could not agree with you more. It was funny, when on saturday evening i caught myself, right there on the intersection of hafez and karimkhan in the midst of all this celebrations , since they had all the road around and leading to 25 sharivar square closed off . (Rohani joon's headquarters , i found out later , was located within 5 minutes walking distance  from my house ) and i had to get off the bus a walk home, and as i was walking home, I could see on the faces that this is not about the "choice" they have just made, believe it or not there were chants of "begoo marg bar shah" as welll ( i had heard them at around the same area a few days before the elections), with wide smiles and happy faces that would indicate there was something else going on and that this had nothing to do with politics. 

So it baffels me when i see postings after postings and articles after articles by those who don't even live in iran, filled with solidarity-themed remarks and congratulations. I go like...what the hell???!!!

I know you out of all the people on here , believe me when i tell you that since i have been back in iran i have not heard ONE, NOT EVEN ONE person saying even one positive and encouraging thing about the situation and everyone sounds like they are sooooo fed up and they have had it and THis is it man!!! we are just gonna bite the bullet and go for it and then there is this.

It is as if you are near a ditch full of dirt and keep on digging and digging, thinking that , hey there is hope still, yesterday i found a dead rat, today who know, Dead lizzard anyone??!!

Sure. Another 4 years will go by and there will be another moderate or less-of-a hardliner candidate or  more moderate that the former moderate candidate...and on and on...

DM jan thanks for the fantastic feedback. Sadly what you just described is very true. This show will go on and on and the people are only too happy to play along.

Take care of yourself my good friend and keep us posted with your fascinating observations and analyses.

Bavafa: No It does not. If your daughter or son makes the biggest mistake of their life by marrying a low life because they are inexperienced and uninfomed but you have no choice but to accept their wrong choice, it does not mean you should congratualte them or celebrate their demise. 

Bavafa, After reading your post again and all the comments, I am not sure if you are being truthful about NOT VOTING or boycotting. I have always given you the benefit of a doubt, but not after this. 

BTW, I am going to remove my comments since they were too personal and should not been shared with someone who is not arguing in good faith.

JJJ:

Nowhere in this blog is suggested that he is the best choice  or best leader for Iran, it is being suggested that he was chosen by Iranian people and they came onto streets to celebrate on their free will perhaps their victory over the Khamenie.  Now what does it tell if we cannot stand by them if we cannot accept their choice or their victory over the Khamenie.

RR:

I may be so but we can also think that this is one battle won by the people in their war with the hardliners.  I personally had by far preferred and wished they would have stayed away from the ballet boxes.  I am sorry they did not.

DM Jan:

To try to speak for all Iranians and what they want is in fact arrogant and foolish.

Firedup:

Thank you for the participation anyway. 

Given the level of mistrust among all of us, it is no wonder the state of the country it is where it is now.

Mehrdad jan

Am i the one who is speaking or even remotely pretending to be doing so? Am i the one who is cheering the whole place up , congratulating the Iranians, and is standing by them? usually when this happens , that means the person doing it, is speaking , or at least thinks he speaks on behalf of the majority. So i am glad that you have recognized that and i hope you will take the necessary measures to stop thet behavior:)

Also, in your comment to JJJ, you have demonstrated that you really don't know what this whole deal is all about!!

Victory over Khamenei??? are you kidding me? while he is the one who pulls the strings and CHOOSES which moderates and which conservatives, hard-liners and koor or kachal can run??
 

This is sad my man. Very sad

Roger jan

I am glad that you liked it ,. It was interesting for me as well. I will do my best, see what i can do:))

The joy Iranians express is contagious and it is hard not to feel for them. We may not like the choice they made but we fall for them because they look secular. This excitement has also blinded us from seeing those whose candidate was not cleared by the assembly or didn't win. They make another aspect of the frightening reality of Iran. Scroll to pass the photos and read a few comments from the blog below:

http://alef.ir/vdcbzgb80rhb98p.uiur.html?190176

Trawestdor

That is exactly what we should refrain from doing, because we give them false hope and would be prodding them along the absolute wrong path. who would want that??? 

they are looking around and all they see is support and then they figure, hey, it ain't so bad afterll right? we have a fasictic governmenn but we have an el presidente who pretends to be a reformer and throws us a bone here and there. Not bad at all! not too shabby! Bring on the wine and let's celebrate.

It does not matter really whos nominated whom in here. What difference would it have made had someone else clincehed the nomination and got elected. He would have had to be someone else's biatch and that would have been the end of that one.

Why can't you see that??!!!!

DoctorMohandes 

Thanks for replying to my comment. I sure agree with you on not  having or giving false hope but I think you misread me. I emphecised "we fall for them because they look secular". That link was added not because of the photos of jubilation but for the comments hamvatan's made on that page. What frightens me is those Iranians whom we don't see in those photos but they make themselves visible by writing comments like these:

"4 سال پیش با همین سیستم رای دادیم کاندیدای ما برنده شد اما جرات نکردیم بگیم به کی رای دادیم. حرف میزدیم بهمون میگفتن سیب زمینی. خوبه معنی دموکراسی و عدالت رو فهمیدیم. فهمیدیم کلا واژه انحصار طلبی فقط برای انگ زدن به رقیب کاربرد داره"

"والله که حق گفتی. شورای نگهبان همون شورای نگهبان. وزارت کشور همون وزارت کشور. رئیس جمهور همون رئیس جمهور. دولت همون دولت. رهبر همون رهبر. ولی چهارسال پیش تقلب بود چون احمدی نژاد رای آورد. امروز به قول هاشمی سالم ترین انتخابات رو داریم چون روحانی رای آورد. احمدی نژاد با بیش از 60 درصد رای اورد روحانی با کمتر از 51 درصد. اگر 400 هزار رای جابجا میشد روحانی با قالیباف به دور دوم میرفت. اما نظام اسلامی و دولت اصولگرا حاضر نشدند حتی 400 هزار رای جابجا کنند چه برسد به 11میلیون رای. این است پیروزی نظام و حزب اله." 

Sorry, this is the English section but I had to paste Farsi to make my point. The above Farsi comments are dialogues happening between Iranians in Iran. Please read a few of those comments in your convenience and give some feedback on what you think of the rest of Ommat.

http://alef.ir/vdcbzgb80rhb98p.uiur.html?190176

Bavafa1,

Why not say Hamvatan I LOVE you but I don't like the choice you made. Congratulating our fellow Iranians on this matter deludes them into repeating the same behavior. 

trawetsdor:

Absolutely and perhaps even a wiser/better message than mine.

Mehrdad