Ahmadinejad and his fundamentalist cronies are doing their darnedest to blame the west for the unrest in their nation right now but thankfully, the current administration has so far avoided the saber rattling that defined the last 8 years of foreign policy. Obama has instead calmly expressed his faith in democratic ideals and the right of Iranians to work out their own problems. A less interventionist US policy effectively weakens the Iranian government’s arguments. Threats of American military action would almost certainly lead to a weakening of the opposition as parties unite patriotically to fight the common enemy.

Today’s resolution by Congress to condemn the government of Iran, even if I may share their sentiment, is not only ineffectual, but against the advice of the founding fathers of this nation who wisely counciled that we remain neutral in the affairs of foreign nations overseas. But the US doesn’t have a very good record of remaining neutral, and in a very selective way over the years the US has decided to meddle here and there – sometimes ignoring terrible humanitarian abuses, sometimes viciously punishing them. The US doesn’t raise much argument over the fact that some of the countries we have good diplomatic relations with don’t even practice democracy at all, but a dubious election gets a resolution of condemnation? Iranians (including those of the opposition party) remember well a time when it was the US committing the coup d’état and replacing the democratically elected leader of their country.

With the mess that was the previous two elections here in the states where thousands of voters were denied access to polling stations as their names mysteriously disappeared off the rolls, or where election results in districts with ‘black box’ electronic voting machines were very different from polling estimates, with all the swift boat lies or Moveon distortions, or Bush’s lying push-polls about McCain’s “illegitimate” daughter – we are hardly in a position to call foul on Iran’s elections.

While it isn’t a stated goal of our Constitution to promote or proselytize for democracy in foreign nations – it stands to reason that Americans would prefer to see democracy prevail over totalitarian oppression for all mankind. Actually supporting that opposition with arms or funding is another matter entirely from a toothless resolution wherein we condemn “bad behavior”.

All this being said, the evidence that the Iranian election was rigged is undeniable. Whether it can piss off the Iranians enough to throw the bums out remains to be seen, but here’s the latest smoking gun links:

from the guardian

There were unconfirmed reports that Mohammad Asgari, who was responsible for the security of the IT network in Iran’s interior ministry, was killed yesterday in a suspicious car accident in Tehran. Asgari had reportedly leaked evidence that the elections were rigged to alter the votes from the provinces. Asgari was said to have leaked information that showed Mousavi had won almost 19m votes, and should therefore be president.

from IBTimes

The letter reads, “Following your concerns regarding the results of the presidential election and per your given discretion to have Dr. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad remain as president during this sensitive juncture. Therefore, everything has been planned in a way that the public announcement will be made in accordance with the interests of the regime and the revolution.”