Iran: "It's Over"

[mrjarrell]

A rather sad tale from Global Post about the death of the Green Movement in Iran. The central government was just too oppressive and dedicated to staying in power for the movement to overcome. Now, they'll just have to rely on patience, since the system is rigged against them and they certainly don't want outside help of the sort that the US is all too fond of promoting.
via Global Post

SHIRAZ, Iran — “It's over.”
With that short answer, a young woman I met while strolling through a park in ancient Shiraz summed up what has happened to the protest movement that shook Iran and electrified the world after last year's disputed presidential election.
For weeks after the election, and then for months, crowds of angry Iranians poured onto the streets of major cities protesting the quick announcement that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had won re-election by a decisive margin. They were harshly repressed. Police officers and pro-government thugs beat demonstrators, killed some and arrested many more. Since the beginning of this year, there have been no large protests. I came to Iran eager to learn why.
The answer I found confirmed an age-old truth: Governments use repression against protesters for the simple reason that it usually works. It certainly seems to have worked here.

“I voted, but I don't believe my vote was counted,” a student at the University of Tehran told me. “Many who voted last time won't vote next time. I'm one of them.”
Despite the frustrations that shape life for many Iranians, however, no one I met expressed the slightest desire for foreign intervention.
“Intervention in Iraq and Afghanistan has brought nothing but death and suffering,” a retired schoolteacher told me in Shiraz. “We don't want that. Above all, we want to preserve peace in our country. We would rather live under a regime we don't like than one that is placed in power by foreigners.”

 

[rambone]

Police State for the win.

I hope things never get so bad that I don't even vote.