Iran's Bloggers in Censorship Protest
Hundreds of Iranian online journals have been protesting against media censorship by renaming their websites after pro-reformist newspapers and websites that have been banned or shut down by the authorities.
Many of the websites, known as blogs or weblogs, have also posted news items from the banned publications on their websites.
The protest was started by blogger Hossein Derakhshan, a student at Toronto university in Canada.
He told the BBC that although he felt the action was symbolic, he wanted to show Iranian authorities "that they would not be able to censor the internet in the same way as they have managed to control other media".
He said he was delighted with the response.
The hardline Iranian press has published a personal attack on him, he said, "which is proof that the authorities must be worried by the bloggers' protest".
Stephen Green from the Vodkapundit chastises the current administration (and rightfully so) for not having a coherent plan for eliminating the Iranian regime, as they are doing their damndest to try and get in to the Nuclear Armed nations club whilst they oppress their people relentlessly and foment further unrest in Iraq. He does mention that while Bush seemingly doesn't have a plan for unseating the Mullahs (or at least in all appearances he doesn't), Kerry has something worse. Anyone remember the whole "we'll supply them the nuclear material and make sure they promise to send the stuff back when they are done with it instead of make nukes out of it" plan? I do. I get nightmares about it. We already don't trust them, why would we actually HELP them try and get a nuclear weapon? Kerry for president, that may be what we get.....Shudder....
Stephen suggests trying to arm and support an uprising-
Iran is ripe for revolution. And, as we learned last year in Fallujah, Iran is already waging war against us (directly and by proxy) in Iraq. So what, exactly, is Bush waiting for – an Iranian-sponsored 9/11-style attack on us in Iraq? We've had those already.
Iran doesn't need fixing. It just needs a good shove. And since Iran is already pushing us, why isn't Bush pushing back?
There are countless, and relatively cheap, ways to do so. We could promise ten billion dollars in cash and material aid to any provisional government willing to foreswear nuclear weapons. We could funnel weapons to Kurds and Sunnis and Azeris on the Iranian side of the Iran-Iraq border. Slightly more fantastically, we could abandon Iraq's Sunni Triangle to the civil war they desire, while setting up a pan-Shiite nation and government in the region around Basra. There are all kinds of things we could do to encourage the population of Iran to revolt – and yet Bush does nothing.
I disagree with this plan because we tried this in Iraq a few times and each time was a complete disaster. I think we need to put serious political pressure on the mullahs and force them to come clean about their nuclear intentions through detailed inspections. The mullahs have already stated they aren't so thrilled about the UN peeking under the hood of their nuclear plans, and have stated a few times that they will inly let us see the places they know are clean.
Gee, where have we heard that before....
We are once again faced with another Islamic fascist state that brutally oppresses its own people and pursues the ability to produce WMD's at a reckless pace. This nation has also sworn the US and Israel as "the great satans" and their true enemies. The people of Iran have begged for regime change in this petition. There are multiple examples of the regime violating just about every known human rights law on the books repeatedly.
"This regime is not the representative of the Iranian people, and we challenge those who think otherwise by an internationally monitored referendum. If the US government and politicians want to be on the side of the brave Iranians who have not given up hopes in spite of confronting a brutal regime and all its western supporters, they should just give them moral support by declaring that they do not recognize the Islamic Regime as their representatives, and that they would refrain from establishing friendly relations with their abusers."[Mohammad Parvin, MEHR.ORG]
Bush may not have a plan on the table that is being discussed in the media, but the one Kerry proposes gives me nightmares. I am sure that Powell and the rest of the administration have discussed the possibility of applying serious pressure to the mullahs. I want to hear what the plans are. If not, we will continue to give them the green light to oppress their people and pursue nuclear weapons.
And thos who think we should defer to the UN, well, I have a cartoon for you...
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