Middle East Focus-Arabia Deserta: Tale of Two Cities ‘09: Tehran, Cairo, and Political Despair. Did Obama Speak Under Martial Law?

Arabia Deserta

Tale of Two Cities ‘09: Tehran, Cairo, and Political Despair. Did Obama Speak Under Martial Law?

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times; it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness; it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity; it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness; it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair; we had everything before us, we had nothing before us; we were all going directly to Heaven, we were all going the other way……" Charles (Chuck) Dickens

Huge demonstrations on Iranian streets. Swine being massacred along the Nile.
There are no best times this year in either of our two cities: Tehran and Cairo. The age of foolishness and political despair deepens all across the Middle East, whether Arab, Persian, or Jewish- without exception.

The hardliners in Iran have clearly miscalculated public reaction to the declared election results. Like extreme conservatives everywhere, they were convinced that their own beliefs are everybody else’s beliefs in society. They still do.

The interesting news is: No state of emergency measures declared in Tehran, no martial law declared. By comparison: Egypt has been living under martial law, a state of emergency since 1981, since president Mubarak took over as president! It gets renewed every few years by the rubber stamp parliament. Iran also has a decidedly conservative parliament, elected after the discouraged and frustrated reformers stayed home in the last election. It is not exactly a rubber-stamp assembly, but it is dangerously close to one.

Still, when Mr. Moussawi (of Moses: Moussa= Moses, whatever that be), the ‘opposition’ candidate for the presidency, spoke to a huge crowd in Tehran today, he did not speak under martial law or under a state of emergency. In fairness, the real true opposition in Iran, the secular parties, have been long destroyed and banned by the mullahs.
In contrast: Egypt’s parliament lives under a permanent state of emergency/martial law whereby the president can dissolve the assembly. That may explain why the news about the unrest in Iran did not get huge headlines in the Egyptian media- not as much as the war on pigs did. The same can be said to a lesser degree for other Middle East states: it is not a good idea to headline other peoples braving government security forces on the street.

FYI: President Barack Obama delivered his speech in Cairo under the same state of emergency, the martial law, in place for 28 years! It was the first time he does that. Perhaps his advisers forgot to tell him…..
Perhaps the Egyptians are being urged to believe that the only way to avoid permanent Iranian-style rule by clergy is to have permanent martial law.
Cheers
mhg
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