Over 200 HEAVILY armed police are currently stationed in Tehran's "Freedom Square" to stop protests against the election results which placed incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad substantially ahead of Iranian reformist Hossein Mousavi.

For those of you whose heads are buried in the sand, Iran recently held Presidential elections and a record voter turnout was recorded. Iranian women and Iranian youth turned out to vote for reform against the hardline government which is conservative and has taken unpopular stances such as officially denying the Nazi Holocaust and viewing western countries (especially the U.S. and the U.K.) as dangerous interlopers in Middle Eastern affairs (a stance not helped by George W. Bush's war in Iraq).

Late this past week Iran's religious leader, Ali Hoseyni Khāmene’i came out in support of President Ahmadinejad and reiterated his conservative stance against the U.S. and Great Britain. He also asserted his position as supreme ruler of Iran by insisting that protestors NOT take to the streets in protest over the election results which are generally seen as unfair and "fixed" by the incumbent conservative party. The Iranian government has also suspended coverage of the protests by the Iranian media unless "permission is secured" by official channels. Unfortunately for them, photos taken by cell phones and broadcast over the internet are leaking out showing the violence. The Iranian government is now working to suspend cellular phone service.

In direct opposition to Khāmene’i's power, the streets of many Iranian cities are filling with protestors who are angry over the hardline conservative powers for what they feel was a rigged election. Riots have already occurred and there have been many deaths attributed to the military forces fighting the unarmed protestors. Things promise to turn violent and I've just now seen a breaking news report of an explosion in Tehran, supposedly taking many lives.

While I absolutely DO NOT want to be seen as an interloper in the affairs of foreign countries, I firmly support the Iranian protestors as they seem genuinely concerned with Democracy and equal rights for women. Freedom and liberty is never more precious than when it's torn from the hands of oppressors

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As a side note, Republican Conservatives here in the U.S. are chastising President Barack Obama for NOT making announcements regarding the alleged voting improprieties. I find this absolutely ridiculous as they would have been the first to scoff at ANY COMMENT made by Iranian government officials during the Bush/Gore 2000 voting debacle!

The lesson to be gleaned from all this is that Conservatives from ANY country don't want change of any type because they are glad to remain in power. It's much easier to convince their constituents that another country or group is evil and that we must guard ourselves against actions by the members of that country or group. It behooves them to keep people in fear of each other as the numbers of people who have nothing against those who are different (in religion, culture or race) and simply want to live out their lives is far greater than those who see enemies at every turn.

It is WRONG to paint people with a wide brush and label an entire country an "axis of evil," for the actions of their conservatives, or to even jokingly suggest that it's good policy to bomb Iran: [link]

As an added note: The ultimate irony in the call by American Conservatives for Obama to insinuate himself into the political fray between Iranians is that John McCain is his harshest critic. He recently said that Obama should support the Iranian people who are struggling for Democracy - the irony in this is that (see the link above) he is the SAME PERSON who, while on the Presidential campaign trail once joked that we should BOMB IRAN! I wonder how many of those "Iranian people struggling for Democracy" those actions would have killed?

For more news on what's happening in Iran:

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