Hopefully the start of a revolution.

Watch that Twitter feeds. Good stuff.

quote:

Originally posted by BBMW:
For a couple of decades now, I've wondered why the CIA hasn't been behind the scenes fomenting a counter-fundamentalist revolution in Iran (or at least doing so successfully.) We've had allies there left over from the Shah era, and there seem to be plenty of Iranians who are sick of the iyatollahs.

Probably because there is little to no benefit for us. They aren't acting like the North Koreans.

If this could come to a head and free Iran this would be world changing as much so as the first Iranian revolution.

Jimmy Carter started this, obama enabled this and hopefully Trump will end this.

Either way, trouble at home means the mullahs have less attention and resources (not to mention less credibility) for their adventurism in Iraq, Syria and Yemen. They can still send weapons and money, but the Revolutionary Guard's gonna have to rededicate itself to its original mission.

There's be little or no benefit to us from getting rid of the Islamic fundamentalist regime in Iran that has basically been a mortal enemy of us since it overthrew the Shah? The regime that's been sponsoring anti-US and anti-western terrorism around the middle east and the rest of the world?

You gotta be kidding me. A pro-western government in Iran flips the whole region in our favor.

quote:

Originally posted by Edmond:

quote:

Originally posted by BBMW:
For a couple of decades now, I've wondered why the CIA hasn't been behind the scenes fomenting a counter-fundamentalist revolution in Iran (or at least doing so successfully.) We've had allies there left over from the Shah era, and there seem to be plenty of Iranians who are sick of the iyatollahs.

Probably because there is little to no benefit for us. They aren't acting like the North Koreans.

CNN hasn't spun this to say they were chanting Death to America and Death to Trump yet?

quote:

Originally posted by fiasconva:
CNN hasn't spun this to say they were chanting Death to America and Death to Trump yet?

Obama's Iran Deal was to prop up the 'moderate' regime and supposedly to help ease the sanctions that had made life difficult for the people. Of course, the mullahs used the planeload of cash to fund terrorism and further their plan to obtain/build a nuclear weapon.

The regime was never 'moderate', but the media here are still spinning like mad trying to portray the bloodthirsty mullahs as 'moderates'. They are doing their level best to ignore or spin these riots as anything but the people's disgust with the regime in charge.

As of midnight last night, CNN did not have a single story on the riots. When they finally published a story, it was about how there were pro government counter riots taking place.

If it wasn't for Twitter, that's all we would know. There would be little or no real information getting out without social media. Just think if this was the 80's, all we would know is what the media chose to tell us - their spin only.

Here was CNN' Middle East page late last night/early this morning:

https://twitter.com/AmichaiSte...s/947583841098747904

Video at link

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/1...t/iran-protests.html

The protests flared against the backdrop of a deep economic malaise in Iran, punctuated by rising prices and high unemployment, especially among young people.

Mr. Rouhani decisively won re-election in May, partly on Iranian hopes that his successful negotiation of a landmark nuclear agreement in 2015 with big foreign powers, including the United States, would lead to an economic renaissance and greater prosperity in the nation of 80 million.

Those hopes, however, have so far turned into disappointment. Despite the relaxation of nuclear-related economic sanctions and increased sales of oil — Iran’s most important export — core American restrictions including a ban on Iranian use of the United States banking system remain in place, severely limiting Iran’s efforts to become less isolated economically.

President Trump’s threats to scrap the nuclear agreement have given potential investors in Iran more reason to hesitate.

Mr. Rouhani’s failure to improve people’s livelihoods has been further aggravated by recent price spikes in staples like eggs, coupled with the government’s plans to sharply reduce subsidies that many Iranians are accustomed to receiving

quote:

Originally posted by sdy:
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/1...t/iran-protests.html

Mr. Rouhani decisively won re-election in May, partly on Iranian hopes that his successful negotiation of a landmark nuclear agreement in 2015 with big foreign powers, including the United States, would lead to an economic renaissance and greater prosperity in the nation of 80 million.

The NYT is determined to stick with the Obama narrative that the mullahs running Iran are 'moderate' and should be supported.


http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-39703124

Tick tock tick tock. Time is a ticking...

Look at the twitter feeds. It is REAL BAD. Cops completely overwhelmed and out-manned. police stations and military bases over ran, equipment stolen.

All leaders in hiding or left the country.

bubbatime...

I am not a twitter user. Can you provide some links to some of the feeds?

The situation and popular support in Iran is Not as we were told- This is the fake news + collusion we need to remove from our media.

The Iranian Protestors know Trump Supports Them.

There's the potential for wiping the stain that is obama from history.

article from April 2017

https://www.forbes.com/sites/m...states/#2cbf62b058ef

Tyrants And Their Hollow States

My friends in Iran tell me that mosque attendance is very sparse, and I see that Iranian religious leaders are trying to explain the failed prediction that the Mahdi, the quasi-mythological Islamic leader whose appearance after centuries of occultation is supposed signal the imminent global triumph of Shi’ite Islam, would soon be with us.

"A representative of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in the Revolutionary Guard, Ali Saidi, said in a speech that the Khomeini revolution in Iran paved the way for the emergence of Imam Mahdi, which is the last stage before his appearance, but that “there are enemies delaying his arrival.”

Saidi, who is an important figure in the regime, identified the major enemies as 1) the United States and 2) the domestic, secular opposition.

If your enemies are capable of forestalling the return of the all-powerful Imam, then the very foundations of the regime are wobbly.

That is all the more true nowadays, when Obama has departed and the major spokesmen for the new administration are outspoken in their condemnation of the Islamic Republic.

*****************
I didn't realize how things were changing in Iran, how bad the internal economics were, and that perhaps the younger people were not nearly as dominated by religion.

Obama had a very powerful hand to play, and he folded his cards

quote:

Originally posted by sdy:
I didn't realize how things were changing in Iran, how bad the internal economics were, and that perhaps the younger people were not nearly as dominated by religion.

Obama had a very powerful hand to play, and he folded his cards

No, he didn't fold, he sent the mullahs several billion dollars in cash to try to prop them up. He picked a side and it was not with the Iranian people who were fed up with the radical mullahs, he chose the mullahs who hate America and fund radical Islamic terrorism worldwide.

quote:

Originally posted by bubbatime:
Tick tock tick tock. Time is a ticking...

Look at the twitter feeds. It is REAL BAD. Cops completely overwhelmed and out-manned. police stations and military bases over ran, equipment stolen.

All leaders in hiding or left the country.

And the mainstream media is pretty much ignoring or downplaying the whole thing. There's a video of protesters attacking the headquarters of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards on Twitter. That would seem to be a pretty big news event, but......<crickets>....

Obama not only wanted to prop them up, he wanted them to devolop nuclear weapons in order to give them parity with Israel and the west. He never considered them "radical" as they are his brothers whom he would help in way he could.

Hopefully we are helping these protesters in any way we can.

quote:

Originally posted by BBMW:
This goes well back before Obama. Why didn't either or both Bush's do this?

quote:

Originally posted by sjtill:

quote:

I've wondered why the CIA hasn't been behind the scenes fomenting a counter-fundamentalist revolution in Iran (or at least doing so successfully.)

Other than that previous POTUS actively sided with the mullahs?

The problems in Iran go way back to that freaking peanut farmer who lived in the white house. Namely "Jimmuh" Carter! Who managed to get the Shah thrown out and a radical cleric installed as leader there.

All down hill from there.

I have always wondered whether Carter was actually that stupid, or just crooked.

Jimmy? Jimmy figured that he was so smart that if he didn't want to think about something then that something must not be relevant.

quote:

Originally posted by zoom6zoom:
Hopefully this is the start of the Iranian people taking back their society. I knew a lot of Iranians at school back during the Shah era, they were mostly pretty nice folk and definitely not fundamentalists.
[FLASH_VIDEO]<iframe frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/wKcHMJlE7OM" width="560"></iframe>[/FLASH_VIDEO]

I spent a year there as a military advisor, back in 1961-62. Out in Kermanshah which is in the heart of the Kurdish territory. Great people. friendly, polite, helpful, charitable and loved their Shah.

Does anyone today remember/realize that the Shah had actually implemented a smaller version of our homestead program? He was giving away plots of land which when cultivated for, (AIR) 3 years became the property of the ones living on it.

He assigned military officers, many of whom had been trained in the US to be teachers out in the villages. This, in itself, ticked off a lot of clerics whose last idea was actually educating the people.

quote:

Originally posted by Sig2340:
C-130s loaded with guns and ammo. Lots of guns, lots of ammo.

I'll even give a gun and ammo to this effort.

Send'em, President Trump

When I was over there, the Kurds had their own weapons and ammo. Not legally, but they had them. The 6th Iranian Infantry Division was headquartered in Kermansha, and it was commanded by a Kurdish General (the only one) and the troops were upwards of 95% Kurds as well.

Unless the method of "enlisting" troops has changed, it is likely still highly represented by Kurds, at least in Kurdistan.