While We Were Sleeping

The debate here in the US has been focused on health care. Health care this, health care that. Is Obama a socialist? He was during the election at least, but now he's also a fascist? Not only is the anti-Obama movement in this country angry, but now it's also totally nonsensical. Congress goes on its Summer break, and at town hall after town hall people are going crazy over the proposed legislation.

Thankfully I'm not here to write about health care. Honestly, who cares? The system is broken; the proposed changes would leave the system still broken. The reality is that many of the people who are so vibrantly opposed to the legislation are opposed just because they oppose change. The conservative movement in this country has totally ceased to have any original ideas, and instead they just oppose change in any form.

Outside of the US the world has continued to turn, and in Iran things continue to happen. Now months since the Iranian Presidential election the ramifications of that fixed process continue to play out. Today the New York Times reports that the offices of the leading Iranian opposition members were raided. In the minds of nearly all Americans, I would suppose, the Iranian election has played itself out already. To believe that, however, would be to not fully appreciate the depth of what is going on in and around Tehran.

Former President Katahmi is still calling for the opposition movement to rise up and not stand for the fixed results. He is calling the movements and actions of the current government "totalitarian" and "fascist." Katahmi is the most prominent and vocal member of the opposition, and his speaking out continues a pattern of prominent members of the Iranian political elite challenging the authority of the Supreme Leader. All this while the IAEA admits that its talks with Iran are at a stalemate, and while Ahmadinejad is again saying he is "open" to the idea of negotiating with the UNSC 5 plus Germany.

In a way it is very American for us to be so focused on something that is highly unlikely to happen (significant health care reform) while ignoring something that is far more likely to have a direct impact on our nation's foreign policy and national security (the power struggle going on in Iran). We have always been a nation with deep isolationist roots, a truly reluctant super power when considered from the ground (everyday citizens) up. It is only natural, therefore, that many Americans, if not most, would focus on battling for or against change in the form of health care legislation while choosing to ignore the boiling volcano in the Middle East. But health care reform, not matter how drastic, doesn't have the potential to lead us into a deadly conflict. The Iranian political system does, and that is why it bears watching.