Early Results: Iran's Conservatives Lead

[Beowulf]

TEHRAN, Iran - <?XML:NAMESPACE PREFIX = AT /><AT:CLASS></AT:CLASS>Early returns on Saturday showed hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's conservative opponents leading in elections for local councils and a powerful clerical body, widely considered a test of popular approval for the hardline leader.
<AT:CLASS></AT:CLASS>Ahmadinejad's anti-Israel rhetoric and staunch stand on Iran's nuclear program are believed to have divided the conservatives who voted him into power. Some conservatives feel Ahmadinejad has spent too much time confronting the West and failed to deal with Iran's struggling economy.
http://kevxml2adsl.verizon.net/_1_22YNTO1045R9SKB__vzn.dsl/apnws/story.htm?kcfg=apart&sin=D8M27T5O0&qcat=intl&ran=13527&passqi=&feed=ap&top=1

Isn't it nice! Ahmadinejad is even pissing off his own people.
Didn't I predict long ago that Iran would change from within? Looks like it's headed that way!

[Quincy]

Wow. I find it a little hard to believe that that guy would just step down quietly even if he does lose, but I'll cross my fingers. It would be great to see one of our problems in that region resolve itself.

[Beowulf]

I just remember reading something awhile back about the younger generation of Iranians, say, in their 20s, are tired of the old ways and want to be more like the West which is why I long ago predicted Iran would change from within.

[Quincy]

I only know one young Iranian studying to be an electrical engineer in Japan, but she does seem pretty Westernized. Her older brother's in the US, which is where she wants to go if she can get the visa.

[Republican_Legion]

Freddy Mercury - Singer from the band 'Queen' was an Ethnic Persian who's family came form India. Its not a complete suprise to me that younger Persians want to go back to when Persia was a tolerant country and viewed as the center of great inventions.

Freddy Mercury was a Parsis http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parsis

Parsis are descended from Persian (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persian_Empire) Zoroastrians who emigrated to the Indian subcontinent over 1,000 years ago to escape religious persecution after the Islamic conquest (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamic_conquest_of_Persia)

[PaulRevere]

As the article indicates, Parsis are of Persian descent but don't identify with Shi'ite Moslem Persia.

As for the Iranians, the Ayatollah told them to go forth and multiply so that they would have lots of Islamic revolutionaries to fight infidels. So they did. However, as with communism, the Islam revolution slogans nd calls for struggle against the West became hallow and boring.

After a while, ordinary Iranians noticed that the ruling mullah families had monopolies on all sectors of the economy and were growing immensely rich while they struggle only to make a decent living. The baby boom generation grew up into an economy that didn't have enough room for them all.

[PaulRevere]

Rafsanjani is the "moderate" candidate in Iran. He is wanted in Argentina for mass murder.

[Un Con Troll Able]

Anyone who believes that any sort of electoral process can peacefully reshape Iran is naive beyond comprehension.

The mullahs in Iran, who are the real power -- controlling the police, the judiciary, the military, and religious entities in Iran -- will NEVER surrender power.