It’s hard not to worry that the crisis in Iran will end in a Tiananmen Square-style massacre. Here is the Boston Phoenix editorial page:
Hope, even under a brutal medieval-minded regime, can be a political aphrodisiac. But hope alone, as the Chinese students who sought reform in Tiananmen Square 20 years ago found out, is no match for armed forces. Whether the death toll in Iran will come to equal that of the Tiananmen massacre and its aftermath remains to be seen.
Juan Cole has similar thoughts.
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I'll never forget the night of the Tianamen Square massacre. It was just another evening dinner, but it is a night that is forever with me.The featured speaker at the Northeastern journalism alumni dinner was Edward Bernays, the father of public relations and the nephew of Sigmund Freud. But he was seriously upstaged by Jack Driscoll, managing editor of the Boston Globe, who reported that Chinese troops had just opened fire on the students in Tianamen Square.We had come through an era where changes were indeed possible, where people who weighed in on matters of government could be heard. But it turned out that the guns of government were all that really mattered.zzzzz
"Even inside America, during the time of the Democrats, time of Clinton, 80 people were burned alive in Waco. Now you are talking about human rights? Well, I believe that the officials of America and EU should feel some embarrassment, shouldn't say anything like that." — the supreme leader todayGood point. We're quick to start pointing fingers at our enemies. Nevertheless, power to the people.
Dan,Do you care to comment on amateur videos from Iran being picked up by CNN and others? On the one hand, this can be a superb supplement to the news. On the other, how can they assure quality control, i.e., what is being described is what is really happening.