The Voluntary Exchange Podcast: Persian Winter

You might have heard that there have been protests in Iran. If you're from America, you were probably told that we are witnessing just the latest attempt by the freedom-hungry Iranian population to break their chains of oppression. While the Iranian government is definitely an authoritarian one, reality is somewhere in the middle.

The purpose of this episode is to break down what these protests are, what is their importance to "the West" and to domestic Iran. The events in Iran have been seen by its enemies as an opportunity, which might actually work in Iran's favor when examining the track record of those enemies.

Protests broke out before the new year in the city of Mashhad, near the northeastern border of the country. It has not been disputed by any media that the initial protests were economic in nature. Frustration over a bad economy and excess foreign spending lead to the more working class of the country to take the streets.

"Working class" is the term I read in most write-ups on the situation. The protests have been small in nature, popping up in smaller urban and rural areas of the country. Different from the Green Movement of 2009, these protests are more Tea Party than a fight for "civil rights" and election fraud. Upset with President Rouhani not delivering on promises of jobs, the same type of voter that turned from blue to red in the US this past election took to the street. They are not hardliners dead set on having "Death to America" or fighting Zionism, but more pragmatic and almost Western.

Rouhani came into office promising to really cut spending and roll back some of Ahmadinejad welfare spending. Rouhani has been fought by the hardline conservatives in his own government. Much like the US, the hardline conservatives fight against any welfare or warfare cuts. Coupled with a lack of reinvestment in the country after the Obama Nuclear Deal, and threats from the Trump administration, Rouhani has been a victim of having a "long term solution in a short term society".

The reporting in the West of these protests have been more than biased. Counter pro-government protests have been organized in Iran, and videos and images of these events have been peddled by Western Media as anti-government protests, hoping to create an narrative for the common American that yet another Middle Eastern country is uprising against its dictator. The truth isn't important.

Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu have verbally supported the protests and "wishes them success". Both governments have recently come to a deal to "stop Iran" and have a "framework" in place to counter Iran in the region. Fox News and its neoconservative experts have taken the opportunity to talk up the idea of more sanctions and covert support for the protests in the response by the Iranian government "cracking down".

I want to conclude with a question, does it really matter what the reality of these protests are if the narrative is sold correctly? Moon of Alabama has pointed out the these protests are small overall, domestic in nature and do not contain real radical Islamic elements. If anything, they are every-day-men, asking their government to "do their jobs".

Why is every American being told everything about these protests? Why the interest and fake narrative? If anything, these are types of events that should be ignored by the warmongering crowd, since the response by the Iranian government has been tame in relation to the region and country's history. Of the 21 dead as of Sunday 12/31, 5 were cops, 2 were citizens who died after a firetruck was stolen and they were run over, and finally 6 of the 21 were rioters who were killed trying to take a police station. As the protests continued past the opening weekend, they became less and less filled with those Tea-Party Iranians and instead included more and more violent rioters, younger in age and more aggressive overall.

It has also been pointed out by one Iranian reporter that the social media platform, Telegraph had been a recent election talking point. Government regulation and shutting down of certain pages on these Twitter-like platform had created anger among the population. Providing more fuel on the fire that these protests may have extended into their 2nd week with help from afar, one of the shows shutdown on the Telegraph network (on the request of the government) was run by the son of an exiled cleric. A cleric who may have had tied to foreign intelligence. Sparking more and more interest into the idea, much like in Syria, that what started as a domestic plea to "Make Iran Great Again", might have been co-opted by Iranians enemies.

While the Neocons' plans for Iraq, Syria, Libya and Ukraine have all backfired, don't expect this to stop them from attempting to destabilize Iran in hopes to replace the regime with one "friendly to West". Nothing makes a country's population love you more than to overthrown their government and replace it for them, especially the Iranians.

Content

Episode can be found here...The full episode archive can be found here and on ITunes.

Sources

• Rare Anti-Government Protests Grow In Iran
• S AND ISRAEL FORMULATE A PLAN TO STOP IRAN – TOGETHER
• Police Crack Down on Iran Protests, Many Killed Overnight
• Iranian Protesters Raise Stakes, Attacking Police Stations
• Netanyahu wishes success to Iran protesters, denies Israeli involvement
• Nine Killed, Hundreds Arrested In 6th Day Of Iran Protests, Supreme Leader Blames "Foreign Enemies"
• Iranian Leadership: Heed Warning Signs And Change Priorities
• Iranian Protests And The Working Class
• Protests In Iran Are An Extension Of The Islamic Republic’s Founding Ethos
• Clean Break II: Iran Hawks Decide To Burn It All Down
• How Rouhani can use protests to advance reform
• Iran Protests

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