Iranian soccer team showing support for angry putative reformers by wearing green armbands? Given that soccer as the non-American world knows it is not so much a sport as it is a near religious expression of populist political tribalism at its most inane, most idiotic, most simple-minded, most monolithicly sentimental and dumb drunk level - that would be a striking development. And apparently Mousavi out there again today calling for mass rallies to honour the martyred dead of his purportedly sabotaged movement? Who knows where this thing goes - a dangerous, unstable momentum seems to be building though and if it continues I expect brutal violence to soon make its appearance - when you consider that A--- may very well have legitimately won the election and therefore commands a significant base of support himself and that the conservative theocratic and military powers that run the country and to which he is in large part a puppet cannot be feeling too comfortable right now and have absolutely zero interest in seeing the putative reformers succeed and yet still a contrarian momentum persists- well, Mossad's claim that this will just fade away seems less and less likely. Angry mobs feed off an irrational animus - soon if not already they will only be content with their guy being named President, whether that represents the truth or not - truth doesn't matter at this point to either side - bloody confrontation seems inevitable and the only thing I feel comfortable predicting is that when the dust settles Iran will prove less amenable to change and compromise, not more.
But long term consequences? Long term, who knows. To Mousavi's supporters the only logical consequence should be overthrow of the theocracy otherwise all this revolutionary zeal is pointless - but I doubt logic plays much of a role in what they're doing: the clerics and the Republican Guard run the country - any change that doesn't change that would be illusory, superficial.
[addendum: this highly sinister and speculative and improbable - but what if A---, in holding back on a crackdown against protesters, is trying to lure Obama into committing to some kind of support for the would be reformers? And then - bam!! - down comes the hammer and he's got Obama right in the cross hairs. Highly unlikely, but I do enjoy my Machiavellian schemes...]
