6/22/2009

Photos That Take Us Beyond Neda:


Near the Iranian consulate in Istanbul yesterday, protesters show photos of the now-famously dead Neda and others killed and injured during protests in Tehran.

From a purely American perspective, selfishly so, this uprising in Iran has stabbed a hole in heart of any and all arguments for bombing that member of the axis of evil. Indeed, if it succeeds, nearly the entire raison d'etre for much of the right wing in this country, from the colonialist neocons to the "bomb Iran" yahoos, will be gone, flushed away like blood on the pavement of Tehran.

If, as George W. Bush says endlessly, freedom and democracy are what people desire, what Iran is showing that it has to come from the citizens, not from the imposition of conquerers in denial. Even if they fail, the marches will have humanized a people who have been demonized by our leaders for decades. And once that happens, the discussion of murdering thousands of them by us is over.