Metal Reviews

As you might know within the last couple of months,Iran (Tehran in particular) has been a battle ground for anti- Government protests and riots. As a westerner , how do you look at the current situation? Who do you think will eventually win this battle? pro-liberal ,anti-government protestors or the fundamentalist ,pro-government supporters? What would be the outcome of the clash between these two ideological opposites for the whole world?

Ahmedinnerjacket needs to fuck off.

That smarmy slick-eyed prick.

Fuck Iran.

The general population of Iran seems to be pretty cool, but the government sucks.

What the others said. I hope the democratic movement wins, yet I doubt they'll be allowed to. Burma cracked down pretty darn quick, Iran will probably crush them too.

Would you support an armed intervention on behalf of Democratic states to kick Ahmedinejad and the Ayatollahs out?

As we know the best way to help someone is by bombing the shit out of them, so why not? Let's go for it, I say.

Ooh, shit-stirrer. No, basically - if western states intervened in places because of a crooked election or two we'd have to start bombing ourselves. Iran is in a sorry state, but as far as I know it's nothing like as bad as, say, Kosovo... if western forces could go in, clear 'jad and co out and then retreat without a single civilian casualty and leaving everyone happy, that would be one thing, except:

1. It would never happen like that; and
2. A significant proportion of Iranians are government loyalists, and their voices deserve to be heard. Such is democracy.

What real reason is there to go in? Because it's an oppressive Islamic state? I'm hardly a fan of Islam, but considering even in Turkey something like half of all murders are because of honour killings, the west would have to basically nuke the Middle East in order to get it to conform to its notions. I don't believe 'jad is much more than a troll, anyways - he talks tough and enjoys pissing Israel off, but I can't see him dropping nukes on anywhere anytime soon. Not that I'm an expert.

Call me optimistic but Iran isn't the same at all as Burma, IMO.

I still, in a glass-half-full kinda way, predict that Ahmadinejad is a reactionary, but temporary, leap backwards in the long term trajectory of the country, which will be to become more liberal.

Not that I really know anything about it, but that's just what I think. Good luck and keep it up to the protestors.

Yes, I didn't really mean to compare them in that sense. From what I've read/heard about Burma, there was a real desperation to the democratic movement - even the monks were marching, maan! - and Iran's movement is more up-to-date, getting stuff out on YouTube. I've not seen that film about how they managed to smuggle out footage of the Burma protests, but it seemed much more haunting and dangerous (crowds running from armed police, anyone with a camera hunted) than what I've seen of the Iranians, who burn cars and shout a lot. Not to put them down, of course - I genuinely hope they succeed, but I'm a bit more pessimistic than you about it.

Would you really launch another Iraq war, Fridge? What, a million dead civilians and a country torn apart by sectarian violence is the best way forwards for Iran?

I asked, I didn't say I supported it. Although the idea of a crazed theocratic jihadist, the type of guy who'd call for the death of a fiction writer, armed with nuclear weapons kinda freaks me out.

Let it rot, leave it alone.

It sounds like something a Western power would use as pretense, something kind of like "wmds" or Osama Bin Laden used by the US. If only the Democratic dynamic thought like that and used those reasons as an actual reason to invade Iran.