Just I heard Secretary Rice calling them the biggest impediment to democracy in the region. I look forward to her next speech in which she'll no doubt praise the mullahs for this move. I mean c'mon she was just praising Egypt for its move to democracy in a presidential race, and that "move" is woefully insignificant compared to this one.
But leaving aside the fact that Iran is already much more of a democracy than several of our allies in the region, it's moves like this one that might make many Americans wary if they took a moment to think beyond the a simple predisposition to believe that all forms of democracy are naturally wonderful. I'm generally pro-democracy, but by allowing more "reformists" to run, you'd think that the current powers that be believe that they'll actually be splitting that the vote of that side of the electorate - and hence making it easier to elect a hardliner. So while I'm in theory a fan of democracy, people in the US should be more willing to acknowledge that when countries actually pursue it we might not like the outcome at all. And as for me, I'm at least as interested in what policies a country may pursue as I am in the techniques they use to elect choose their leaders.
Posted by armand at May 24, 2005 12:11 PM | TrackBack | Posted to International Affairs