Iran

What is happening in Iran?

I hope that this is a question that many people are asking themselves. Iran is a fascinating country that will have a lot of influence on our future. I am going to try to explain a little about what is going on, and hopefully shed some light on the situation.

The Past

Iran was called Persia for a long time. After the Ottoman Empire collapsed the middle east was carved up and divided how we know it today. Iran was ruled by the "Shah" or King until 1979ish when the Ayatollah took over. Ayatollah basically means "Leader" it is often translated as "Supreme Leader", but that is a little strong. The Ayatollah is a religeous leader as well as a political one. The US wasn't very happy with this regime change and we decided it would be in our best interest to fight them. So when Iraq invaded Iran we helped the Iraqis out with weapons, even thought they may have killed up to 100k Kurds living in Iraq. Iran was not a fan of US involvement and we have had our disagreements since. (Most notably the Hostage Crisis and Nuclear Enrichment concerns)

The Present

Iran had their presidential elections recently. Ahmadinejad vs Mousavi (A and M for short) A was president and very well controlled by the Ayatollah. M was his most popular challenger. Polls predicted it would be a very close race, but after counting hand ballots for a few hours A is declared the winner by a 66% majority. Most people seem to belive this a clear indication of fraud. People right and the Government of Iran is trying to quell the uprising.

The Future

Remember that because of protests and uprisings like what are going on now the regime changed hands in 1979. It took around ten years of revolts before the actual change occurred but this is interesting all the same. I hope that the people of Iran realize that now dictator holds power, and that the power is always in the hands of the masses. We may end up with a free and democratic Iran, and we may not only time will tell.