Breaking now on CNN New Footage The streets are flooded

[nomaco-10]

with protesters. Looks like it's going to be another bloody day in Tehran.

[ejpoeta]

1. i don't think it helps that the supreme leader is calling them terrorists.

that might work if it were like a hundred of them. but I think his acts are backfiring. It's just so sad so many are being hurt and dying... I hope it isn't for nothing. You want them to be free, but you don't want them to have to die to get it.

[nomaco-10]

3. If only the police and the military would put down their ...

weapons and join them.

[vadawg]

10. All depends mayby they dont agree with them

the military and other populace areas might be perfectly happy with the current regime, we always assume when we see large protests that means that the people are all for it, i wouldnt be surprised if the number who are for the regime is not larger or at least equal to the numbers protesting. Not even taking into account differences in regions, tribes and cultural groups within iran.

[nomaco-10]

12. Yes, but the police and the military are...

mostly the same age/demographics as the protesters. Surely many are sympathetic?

[vadawg]

13. dosent matter, most times the military units will be from other provinces/regions

just as the russians used to do, just look at the number of countries in the past were people were happy to kill groups the same age etc as them for the dumbest of reasons, this is either going to go like eastern europe with the dictators being deposed and then probuably civil war and balkanization, or itll go like china with the revolt being put down.

[liberalmuse]

15. I'd always wondered during the Bush reign...

how the police and military would react if we had taken to the streets in as large numbers as the Iranians, revolting against the stolen election and refusing to recognize Bush (which a small number of us did, but it wasn't enough to cause much of stir). Or even if we were to do so sometime in the future. Maybe we can look at the police activity towards protesters at the RNC and DNC Conventions to get a rough idea. Kind of scary.

[vadawg]

16. speaking as someone in the business so to speak

it wuold take a hell of a lot to make the people i work with to turn their guns on unarmed civilians unless we were in danger, remember the popo etc are just like the population, liberals, repubs, liberty dues, white , black etc.

[shadowknows69]

17. Or keep their weapons and join them

This is now a revolution and the path of violence has been chosen by the govenrment. The people have no recourse but to meet force with force at this point so they might as well be able to defend themselves.

[nadinbrzezinski]

18. Even those are divided

why they are bringing people from the Guards and the Basiji...

They KNOW that one reason the revolt in '79 worked was that the army and the police joined up. Like the Russian navy they are not trusted. (Reference to the 1917 revolution)

[saltpoint]

2. President Obama was right to invoke Dr. King's quotation (below) as

commentary to what it taking place in the streets of Iran this week, and right also to say we are bearing witness to History.

"The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice." (Martin Luther King)

[Wizard777]

4. Amen brother!

[saltpoint]

7. Hi, Wizard777. Amen indeed. I am feaful of escalating violence but

I realize this is an amazing thing to see. President Obama's public remarks on events in Teheran just seemed nearly perfect.

[Wizard777]

19. Just know that violence cannot break them. It will only make them stronger and more resolute.

The only person that knows this better than Khamenei is Montazeri. A violent crack down was the Shah's fatal mistake. Khamenei and Ahmadinejad are being backed into a corner and they are getting desperate to hold onto their power. That's why they are holding Rafsanjani's daughter hostage......."arrested" same stench. They are trying to make Khamenei's removal by the Council of the Wise insufferable for the Councils Leader.

[saltpoint]

20. I'm thinking it is tense and getting tenser.

And it is amazing that modernity provides the technology for the entire world to watch this playing out -- "bearing witness," in President Obama's phrase.

Agree with you that it is a fierce and increasingly small corner they've backed themselves into. Their people are rising against them and the rest of the world is rooting for the people. They are losing the moral ground game and History now conspires against them.

[vadawg]

21. i cant help but feel this is going to go ala tiannaman square for the protesters

so we really know if the majority of the iranians are backing the protests, what if its not a majority, i presume the regime has already moved troops from their more loyal regions into the area in case they need them, remember there are a lot of iranians who have a lot to lose if the regime fails and a lot who faithfully follow the tenets of the theocrasy. I just dont think this is going to end well.

[saltpoint]

22. It's worrying. There are some medieval attitudes who are pretty territorial

to start with suddenly on the defensive, both from demonstrations in the streets of their capital city and on the world stage.

Moral authority is persuasive, and in Iran, it has shifted dramatically toward the protestors. I share your worry that trapped medievalists will resort to remorseless violence to assert control.

[malaise]

5. How strange that the BBC hasn't reported that

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!

[grantcart]

11. They haven't posted anything about Sunday, although their latest report shows Saturday's violence

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8111352.stm

It appears they are taking Sunday off and CNN is the sole provider today.

[Postman]

6. Wonder if Fox News is giving the Supreme Leader some talking points...

[nomaco-10]

9. They had dick morris on this am trashing Obama over Iran. n/t

[GivePeaceAchance]

8. They can only rule with the consent of the people looks like very low approval...

They are wisest to hold another election or they're only making their own lives hard. Don't think this will end till that happens and there are legitimate observers over any the process.

[ncrainbowgrrl]

14. Looks like Beijing, 1989 way too much...

:scared:

[Xenotime]

23. The rethuglicans needs to stop encouraging this. The blood will be on their hands as well.