Whew! Good thing President Obama followed the sage advice of the incessantly squawking war hawks on Fox News and Dick Cheney and friends and bombed Iran back in to the stone age. God knows what could have happened to America if we hadn't slaughtered a few million Iranian civilians and incinerated a people and it's culture in order to exact the regime change we wanted:
TEHRAN, Iran — Wild celebrations broke out on Tehran streets that were battlefields four years ago as reformist-backed Hasan Rowhani capped a stunning surge to claim Iran's presidency on Saturday, throwing open the political order after relentless crackdowns by hard-liners to consolidate and safeguard their grip on power.
"Long live Rowhani," tens of thousands of jubilant supporters chanted as security officials made no attempt to rein in crowds – joyous and even a bit bewildered by the scope of his victory with more than three times the votes of his nearest rival.
In his first statement after the results were announced, Rowhani said that "a new opportunity has been created ... for those who truly respect democracy, interaction and free dialogue."
But in Iran, even landslides at the ballot box do not equate to policymaking influence.
All key decisions – including nuclear efforts, defense and foreign affairs – remain solidly in the hands of the ruling clerics and their powerful protectors, the Revolutionary Guard. What Rowhani's victory does is reopen space for moderate and liberal voices that have been largely muzzled in reprisal for massive protests and clashes in 2009 over claims the vote was rigged to deny reformists the presidency.
Rowhani's supporters also viewed the election as a rebuke of uncompromising policies that have left the Islamic Republic increasingly isolated and under biting sanctions from the West over Tehran's nuclear program. The 64-year-old Rowhani is hardly a radical – having served in governments and in the highly sensitive role of nuclear negotiator – but he has taken a strong stance against the combative international policies of outgoing President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and others.
"I've never been an extremist," Rowhani said on state TV shortly after the official results were announced. "I support moderation."http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/15/hassan-rouhani-wins-election-iran-president_n_3446945.html
. . . . wha? what's that? Obama didn't unleash America's mighty shock and awe on the Iranians? We didn't burn their country to the ground? And the Iranian people, of their own volition, threw out the hardliners in their election and elected a moderate, more conciliatory government??
Well The Gadfly will be a suck-egg mule!!!
Imagine that! --- an American President opting for a policy of other than outright lying to your own citizenry about the necessity for war actually works! Will wonders never cease?
----TFG
**NOTE: The Gadfly fully acknowledges that the ruling clerics in Iran still wield significant power in the country's political infrastructure - which is why The Gadfly included the paragraph in the article copy which states such. However, if one knows the history of Iran, this is a big fucking deal --- this is basically a clear, convincing majority of the Iranian people sending an unambiguous message to those ruling clerics that those clerics are a dwindling minority - and that dear readers - speaks volumes in that part of the world. Bombs and missiles and death and destruction aren't always the solution to every problem, and The Gadfly does not give a flying fuckstick what Dick Cheney thinks.
----TFG
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