Amir Taheri - Times Online

Iran’s dictator gives up pretence of democracy Amir Taheri - Times Online: "Today there are two Irans. One is prepared to support Khamenei’s bid to transform the republic into an emirate in the service of the Islamic cause. Then there is a second Iran – one that wishes to cease to be a cause and yearns to be an ordinary nation. This Iran has not yet found its ultimate leaders. For now, it is prepared to bet on Mousavi. The fight over Iran’s future is only beginning."

For the sake of arguing I would like to ask if there is an other Iran that yearns for normality, this normality would probably be the Chinese version with dictatorship style government. Like Afghanistan and Pakistan they seem to want this growth pattern under tight control. Most articles that I read don't talk about freedom fighters. Roger Cohen at iht.com, for one, is very careful with the freedom talk. There used to be more talk about an Iran that was Western oriented in for example The Economist but as Pletka and Alfoneh at AEI pointed out there has been a non-bloody revolution to an ideological dictatorship.

If "restoration of the revolution" is what they want to achieve it might be the 80% theocracy and 20% democracy of Taheri they talk about. Why this would be interesting is however a little strange because the democracy fraction would mean to elect one president of several from the same camp. Right now the debacle looks like a power struggle between Khamenei and Rafsanjani.

I would like to see an in debt discussion about the character of the ordinary other nation. Is it Western or is it Chinese?