My Dad has been curious into how Japan has responded to the Iranian election, and also some of my thoughts on it. I posted in a reply to the previous post, but I’ll repost them here for your convenience.
Even worse than getting caught with illegal downloads.
Japan does not really have a direct stake in the Middle East, at least not in the same way America does. Part of the US-Japan Security Treaty, is that in the event of a conflict on the Korean Peninsula, Japan would secure the oil shipping line from the Gulf through the Indian Ocean to South East Asia. In recent years, however, Japan’s crude oil imports from Saudi Arabia (biggest supplier) and Iran (increasingly important) have been surging.
Regardless, Japan does not cover the Iranian election much. Japan, although troubled, seems to be less troubled by the American financial crises than other developed nations, and thus with ample capital, has their oil futures secured. And in a pinch, there is always the option to beg Russia.
From my point of view, especially in light of the crapstorm that was the 2000 US presidential election, it is best for America, with Obama as its current face, to weather the storm. If Obama stays on course with his ambitions to offer diplomacy “regardless of who is elected” it will show impartiality, respect for sovereignty, and reassert that the protests and public movements that the Iranian election spawned were homegrown, and not a product of American intervention.
The US has already overthrown one President and installed a dictator in Iran. It doesn’t need to happen again. Also, as the old mantra goes, “if you give a man a fish, blah blah blah…”; Iran has known how to fish for a long time (ie – Islamic Revolution) and has no need to be taught. This struggle over the elections, however, will be important, and does not need America in any way shape or form to talk down to it for any reason. They are growing their own strong political culture. If they succeed in ousting a dictator and preventing a dynasty, their roots will grew all the deeper.
US/OBAMA – let them fish. They know how, let them cast out their line and see what they get. If they reel in the same tired carp, you can address it, and already have information on it. But if they pull in something new, it will bring its own set of unique challenges to drag it into the boat, and there is no garauntee that it will taste nice.
Iran is changing. The Middle East is changing. The world is changing. America is currently embedded in Iraq and Afghanistan. Perpetual conflict rages in Palestine and Israel. Turkey is still seeking admittance to the EU. And although some would argue that these are centuries old conflicts, the most recent sparks were flared between the 1950s-1970s. Within a generation we could see a secular government, with an Islamic culture, prospering in the newly admitted EU state of Turkey. This would show acknowledgement of the West for the attention seeking Middle East. In accordance with a fully sovereign, Arab-democratic Iraq, these two nations would give example to Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iran, for how secular government, Islam, and tribal/cultural/sectarian differences, rules, and governance can function together for the nation-state.
This is a very hot area. I don’t expect anything immediately practical to come out of the “fraudulent” Iranian elections. But like most things, it is the unforseen, indirect consequences that will make the biggest impacts, and for these I am most hopeful.
Iranian students were constantly engaged in the streets and universities, while also circumnavigating their government blocks on social networking sites like Flickr, Facebook, Twitter, and others, to update and inform people on what their situation was like. This in spite of being brutalized by volunteer militias of government hardliners, having their rooms pillaged, and personal belongings destroyed.
Also of note, 1/6 of the world will soon be of Muslim faith. This is going to bring scrutinizing focus on Iran, Iraq, and Turkey, to be the change that the West would like to see in the Middle East. I don’t particularly agree with many facets of Westernization or Americanization, but to some degree, cultures either facilitate coexistence or the “weaker” succumbs to assimilation. The current conflicts in the Middle East, I believe, will begin to resolve within the next generation. The rate of change in, and the amount of eyes watching and reading about the Middle East (and Korea) in the years to come will be unfathomable.
I added pieces on to my initial response. Also, please check out the second installment of the WP’s BP series on the Iranian elections. This one dwells on the protests in particular, and myself especially, am drawn to the pictures involving the students. Pictures 16-19 get me, and the one of the band of women rushing the security officer beating the young man.
We all know someone who has been on the front lines...
Again I have to comment on how many of the young people in these pictures look like my classmates, could be my classmates. These are not nameless, faceless, cave-dwelling terrorists. These are people. WP has a third set of more censored photos here.
