Iranian Elections

As many people, I'm sure, are aware, elections have been taking place in Iran recently. This has pissed many people off since the more "pro-western" candidate did not win, despite the efforts of international news agencies like the BBC and CNN to tirelessly report Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's unpopularity in that country.
Many, including, not very surprisingly, the leading opposition leader, one Mir Hossein Mousavi, have disputed the election results there. "I'm warning I will not surrender to this dangerous charade. The result... will jeopardize the pillars of the Islamic Republic and will establish tyranny," proclaims Mousavi, boldly defending his right to relentlessly oppose any election in which he is not the winner. Following suit, the reformist candidate Mehdi Karroubi, with an impressive 0.9% of the vote, criticized the result saying, "Evidently the results and the institution coming out of such a vote count is illegitimate and unacceptable." I wonder if he would have said the same thing if Mousavi had won the election.
Fortunately for Ahmadinejad, some people do support him. The conservative candidate Mohsen Rezai proclaimed, "It is obvious that the person who has been declared president following the legal procedures is the president of all Iranian people. I will support him in a bid to prevent any delays in the provision of services to the people." Well, it's better than nothing. Shockingly, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei backed up the results as well. "The chosen and respected president is the president of all the Iranian nation and everyone, including yesterday's competitors, must unanimously support and help him." Wow. I'm really surprised by his response.
Perhaps even less shocking was the response of the international community. Hillary Clinton responded thusly, "We are monitoring the situation as it unfolds in Iran. But we, like the rest of the world, are waiting and watching to see what the Iranian people decide. We obviously hope that the outcome reflects the genuine will and desire of the Iranian people." Way to be diplomatic Mrs. Clinton. Could you possibly make it a little bit more obvious that you don't believe the election results? In case you people in Washington hadn't noticed, someone has already decided the will of the Iranian people. If that reflects the actual will of the people or not, we may never know for certain; but it's not like there's anything you can do about it, short of invading and "liberating" them, and we all saw how well that went down last time you tried that. I think my favorite remark, though, was the one made by the EU presidency. "The presidency is concerned about alleged irregularities during the election process and post-election violence that broke out immediately after the release of the official election results on 13 June 2009. The presidency hopes that the outcome of the presidential elections will bring the opportunity to resume dialogue on the nuclear issue and clear up the Iranian position in this regard." Well, at least you made your sentiments known, even if your position of power is really nothing more than a daydream someone had in 1958. You put your two cents in eu2009.cz. Congratulations. Next month, you wont be in power anymore and your opinions will no longer count. (In case you're interested, the current leader of The Presidency is the Czech Republic and the responsible ministers are Karel Schwarzenberg and Jan Kohout, like it matters. The website is www.eu2009.cz. Starting next month, the leader will be Sweden and the website for that is www.se2009.eu)
Ah, political drama. It makes me glad I spend so much of my life living under a rock. It's funny, you know, this is not really the reason I put up this post in the first place. I was actually going to make the following comment, but I got sidetracked: look up the election turn out in Iran and the election turn out in the US for last November. The official turnout for the recent Iranian elections was 85%, and they don't even have an actual say in the outcomes of their elections! Compare that to the paltry 61.7% voter turn out in the US. Pathetic. We actually have the chance to determine the course of events in our country and 40% of the citizens couldn't be bothered to get their fat, lazy asses of their couch long enough to incorrectly punch holes in an unintelligibly-marked card. There is no hope for us.
Source for quotes: BBC News http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8098761.stm
Source for Iranian election turn out: BBC News http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8099501.stm
Source for American election turn out: United States Election Project http://elections.gmu.edu/Turnout_2008G.html