Failure of wishful thinking in Iran<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I had been reading a number of articles--like this one and this one--saying that Iran's middle class and its young people, who are secular at heart, may\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2009\/06\/failure-of-wishful-thinking-in-iran\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Failure of wishful thinking in Iran\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I had been reading a number of articles--like this one and this one--saying that Iran's middle class and its young people, who are secular at heart, may\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2009\/06\/failure-of-wishful-thinking-in-iran\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Cranach\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/cranachblog\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-06-15T09:00:53+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Gene Veith\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Gene Veith\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2009\/06\/failure-of-wishful-thinking-in-iran\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2009\/06\/failure-of-wishful-thinking-in-iran\/\",\"name\":\"Failure of wishful thinking in Iran\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2009-06-15T09:00:53+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2009-06-15T09:00:53+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#\/schema\/person\/f9ca8670bcc51908a78994c0484dbfa1\"},\"description\":\"I had been reading a number of articles--like this one and this one--saying that Iran's middle class and its young people, who are secular at heart, may\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2009\/06\/failure-of-wishful-thinking-in-iran\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2009\/06\/failure-of-wishful-thinking-in-iran\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2009\/06\/failure-of-wishful-thinking-in-iran\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Failure of wishful thinking in Iran\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/\",\"name\":\"Cranach\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#\/schema\/person\/f9ca8670bcc51908a78994c0484dbfa1\",\"name\":\"Gene Veith\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/054d79faea5d476edd8f99e5f14fb17f?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/054d79faea5d476edd8f99e5f14fb17f?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Gene Veith\"},\"description\":\"Gene Edward Veith, Jr. is a writer and retired literature professor, serving as Provost Emeritus at Patrick Henry College. 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{"id":2535,"date":"2009-06-15T05:00:53","date_gmt":"2009-06-15T09:00:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.geneveith.com\/?p=2535"},"modified":"2009-06-15T05:00:53","modified_gmt":"2009-06-15T09:00:53","slug":"failure-of-wishful-thinking-in-iran","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2009\/06\/failure-of-wishful-thinking-in-iran\/","title":{"rendered":"Failure of wishful thinking in Iran"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

I had been reading a number of articles\u2013like this one<\/a> and this one<\/a>\u2013saying that Iran\u2019s middle class and its young people, who are secular at heart, may well vote their radical president out of office. But Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was re-elected
\n<\/a> in a landslide. Supporters of his moderate rival Mirhossein Mousavi claim the election was stolen. His followers are staging protests, some of which have put down violently<\/a>. It looks like we will still have to deal with Ahmadinejad, whether he is the democratically-elected president or a dictator. The U.S. has been pressuring Israel not to bomb Iran\u2019s nuclear facilities, I suspect holding out the hope of a new, less aggressive government, but now we\u2019ll have to see what will happen, including what Israel will do.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"