The situation in Iran

Was the Iranian election stolen? Cenk Uygur in The Huffington Post says the Iranian elections were obviously rigged, citing this NT Times story:

Rallies for Mr. Moussavi have drawn tens of thousands of people in recent days, and a new unofficial poll suggests his support has markedly increased, with 54 percent of respondents saying they would vote for him compared with 39 percent for Mr. Ahmadinejad.

This Washington Post story, which seems more credibly sourced, says the opposite:

The election results in Iran may reflect the will of the Iranian people. Many experts are claiming that the margin of victory of incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was the result of fraud or manipulation, but our nationwide public opinion survey of Iranians three weeks before the vote showed Ahmadinejad leading by a more than 2 to 1 margin -- greater than his actual apparent margin of victory in Friday's election.

Blogger Joseph Cannon provides some interesting historical back story showing the extent to which the U.S supported the Ayatollah Khomeini, in an effort to prevent a socialist goverment in Iran after the Shah.

What should the U.S. do? I would say: nothing. Supporting the overthrow of a moderate Iranian government in 1953 was a mistake. Supporting the Ayatollah Khomeini and stirring up militant Muslims worldwide was a mistake. Meddling in Iran, as we certainly did during Bush and are probably still doing under Obama, is a mistake. A military attack on Iran would be a big mistake.