You Did it, And Got Away With It

When in Turkey, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was asked by a reporter about the physical transfer of over 18 million Dollars from Iran to Turkey, his first response was, “Well, if he pulled a fast one, then bon appetite!” He then asked, “Why don’t you calculate to see how many 18 wheeler trailers are needed to take this money across the border! Is it even possible?”

What a pitty that there was nobody there to tell him: “Mr. Ahmadinejad! You did it, and it worked!” For years you and those who have chosen you to represent them, have been doing such things, and it has worked!”

Let’s begin from the first days when your co-thinkers and supporters were laying the ground work for today and dreamed of a state with an absolute leadership.

When Dariush Foruhar did everything he could to extinguish the flames that were burning in Kurdistan, you stepped in and hanged scores of people. And got away with it and it worked!

In 1988, when ayatollah Montazeri’s students and supporters were trying to save prisoners from the vindictive guillotine of your co-thinkers, you hanged scores of groups of the youth of this nation in the heater room of Evin prison. You got away with it and it worked!

You set up summary trials and passed judgments en masse. You got away with this and it worked!

Let’s get closer. During Mohammad Khatami’s administration and reformists who despite legal obstacles, won the popular elections and were elected to head the executive and legislative branches of the government, you created a crises every 9 days. And got away with it! Did you not shut Iranian newspapers one after the other? Did you not attack the dormitory of Tehran University? Did you not pull out the eyes of students? Did you not push their heads into feces? Did you not rape them? Did you not reward their killers? And it worked!

Let’s get even closer. Did you not come to the presidency by embezzling the national treasury? Did you not waste billions and billions of Dollars of this country’s oil revenues during the last four years? Didn’t you get away with this too?

In fact we don’t even have to go that far. Just a few months ago, did you not steal the vote of a nation? Did you not violently crackdown on those who protested to this in a manner that left Neda and others like her dead in the streets, or Sohrab and others like him dead through torture? Didn’t you get away with this?

And today, don’t you have hundreds of prisoners who were arrested before the street protests even began, while you continue to torture them on a daily basis as you try to prove that they had a role in the post-election street “riots?” Did you not put Zeidabadi, Saharkhiz, Momeni, Nabavi, Fariba Proje, Shabnam Madadzadeh, and others into graves, like you did to Manoutchehr Behzadi, and pushed them to the limits of insanity? Didn’t you get away with this too? Looks like it worked for you.

Mr. Ahmadinejad! You did these things and they worked for you! And now you present yourself to be righteous?

But while you are at the pinnacle of power today, and smiling, remember that when you portray everything to be possible and justifiable, you are also allowing others to do the same. The very people who in your own words did what they did to the ancient regime, and it worked, will do the same with you, and it will work.

On that day of judgment, you, along with your cleric and Guard colleagues as things are thrown at you, you will ask: Can you do this? And you will hear the voice of the prosecutor say: We did it, and it works.