The government-run media in Iran (as opposed to the government-run media here) is announcing that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has “won” “re-election.”

This is like Saddam Hussein winning “re-election” in Iraq. He used to get 105% of the vote. (Just like certain presidential candidates in Cook County, Illinois!)  Ahmadinejad is said to be “winning” with a measly 68% of the vote. (Can’t be too greedy, now.  Look at what happened to Saddam.)

The joke, of course, is that the Iranian “election” wasn’t an election at all. The 4 men running for President were all hand-selected by the mullah’s Governing Council and pre-approved by Ayatollah Khamenei, who actually runs the country. All 4 are hardline conservatives, although some are more vocal about it than others. In fact, Ahmadinejad’s major “opponent,” Mirhossein Mousavi, was Prime Minister under the Ayatollah Khomenei, and has 144 extraterritorial assassinations on his resume. In addition, he oversaw the 1983 attack on our military barracks in Beirut which killed 241 U.S. servicemen. He also believes in the Iranian march to nuclear weapons. Some “moderate.”

Ahmadinejad (or frankly, any of the other three) are useful idiots for the ruling clerics. The “election” was rigged from the outset to make Westerners believe there’s real choice there.

But the West continues to live in a fantasyland—”if only Ahmadinejad weren’t there…”—while Iran’s leaders live in reality.

It’s about time we did too.

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