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05 June 2006

Let Freedom Ring

Today is the 17th anniversary of the massacre at Tiananmen Square so I just want everyone to think about what is happening in Iran.

This weekend in Opinion Journal interview Reza Pahlavi talks about the need to support the fledgling Democracy movement in Iran;

"there is only one thing that the outside world can do, and that is to tell the regime: 'We are serious about supporting the people who are inside Iran who are against you.' That is the only thing that will make Mr. Khamenei [Iran's supreme leader] and everybody stand down. Because nothing else ruffles them. The only thing they are really scared of are the people themselves."

This along with stories from Winston over at The Spirit of Man about protests in the Iranian Colleges, Jason Lee Steorts piece in National Review (NR Digital subscription needed) and various bits from around the blogoshere.

But the real sad part is, it isn't enough.

Where is the daily national coverage on the nets about the brave Iranian dissidents?
Where is the union leadership in this country that supports Mansoor Osanloo the leader of the illegal bus drivers union who is still in prison?
Where is the Government in calling for the end of this horrible regime?
Where is the Left that is busy slandering Coke a Cola about union deaths in a nationalist war?
Where are you?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

true true

Anonymous said...

I'd like to offer couple references in addition to PBS Frontline's "The Tank Man", where it reported the fact Chinese government did investigate this, and release casualty figure of 240 some dead (incidentally in-line with our own NSA intel estimate.)

An article by Gregory Clark on pack journalism:

http://mparent7777.livejournal.com/7702519.html

"the so-called massacre was in fact a mini civil war as irate Beijing citizens sought to stop initially unarmed soldiers sent to remove students who had been demonstrating freely in the square for weeks. When the soldiers finally reached the square there was no massacre."

An article by Columbia Journal Review on passive journalism:

http://archives.cjr.org/year/98/5/tiananmen.asp

"as far as can be determined from the available evidence, no one died that night in Tiananmen Square.
...
Hundreds of people, most of them workers and passersby, did die that night, but in a different place and under different circumstances."

[Just for reference, throwing molotov cocktail at riot police is a crime in US.]