the problem with Ahmadinejad as scourge of neo-liberalism (the line i note LENIN'S TOMB has settled into - along with a universally agreeable lauding of the protests which is fair enough - following a guest contributor's somewhat, er, relaxed initial analysis of the early outcome results) is that all the admirable state programmes in the world (and a lot of his state programmes have been very regressive, not progressive) don't disguise that, Ahmadinejad, in recent years, has come in for heavy criticism for his handling of the economy, criticism that notes he has not been too successful in ameliorating the condition of working Iranian people AFAICT.
all the Juan Cole, Jeff Weintraub-channeling-the-Brit-ambassador and Gary Sick pieces i linked to up-thread are more than worth a look in their own right, but a money quote from one of the Cole bits (without context you'd want to go back and read, of course, for the meat)
And just because Ahmadinejad poses as a champion of the little people does not mean that his policies are actually good for workers or farmers or for working class women (they are not, and many people in that social class know that they are not).
@four_five_one, nice to see someone correctly call a spade a spade re PAD-aligned thugs in Thailand and their appalling assault on the democratic process! (though you are, of course, also right to say Thaksin ran death squads etc.
as a matter of fact i mean to put up a fair-sized piece on some of Thaksin's crimes and excesses on one of my blogs soon.)
if you would care to start a thread about that, riffing on your reflections and such, please do, Thai politics is one of my main areas of interest. (though i have never even been to the country
)
incidentally, one of the Cole pieces i link to a few pages ago - much like the piece Josef/Vimothy has linked to just now - takes aim at that Washington Post piece regarding the Terror Free Tomorrow polling and does so, for my money, quite fairly and persuasively.
