You may recall that a wall in the city of Berlin collapsed late in 1989. Although I visited the wall earlier that summer, I had a notion it wouldn't be standing much longer. The wall separated the free people of the west from the oppressed people of the east.
About a quarter century before, President John Kennedy visited the divided city and claimed solidarity with the citizens of Berlin. A couple of decades later, President Ronald Reagan demanded that the Communist party secretary of the Soviet Union (rather than the East German leadership) to tear down the wall.
Both were admirable sentiments; I'm not sure they were persuasive.
But like the walls of Jericho, it came a tumblin' down.
It wasn't the biggest surprise when the wall ultimately fell. By 1989, the Iron Curtain was rusting and East Europeans were scurrying through the cracks. After years, nay decades, of a second class existence -- brought on by an accident of geography -- the populace was voting on foot to greener pastures in the West. After a while you realize that you can only tolerate so much.
In Iran, there are protesters -- perhaps tens of thousands of them -- defying death threats. Originally it was to denounce a blatantly rigged election and now it's morphed into something more -- perhaps an existential threat to the theocrats that have ruled that nation for the last thirty years.
Some have claimed that President Barrack Obama's recent speech in Cairo have encouraged the protesters.
Get real.
The President's speech may be historic, but it certainly wasn't memorable. For as hyped an orator as he is -- do you recall the takeaway quote? Neither do I.
Over the past several years the Iranians have seen their neighbors -- the Afghans and the Iraqis -- vote. Were those elections perfect? Hardly. But they were fair enough to lead some in Iran to believe that they should have the same opportunity. (And you have to believe that the Iranians think themselves as superior to their neighbors.)
Even in an election where the candidates were approved by the mullahs (who hold the real power).
So you have a situation where the results of a sham election are so obviously rigged (why it would take the Administration time to figure that out is beyond me) the masses have simply had enough.
Now this protests have become something that nobody -- except those who believe in freedom -- could have expected. Or, perhaps the guy who made free elections possible in Afghanistan and Iraq.
George W. Bush.
And he wasn't known for his speeches. Go figure.
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