White Revolution II

NY Press:

Occasionally, a huge story written by a respected journalist appears in the press, and no one notices.

That was the case last week when Iranian émigré columnist Amir Taheri reported the details of a speech given by Iran's president to the nation's parliament. Most accounts focused on the question of whether the President's inexperienced but crazily devout followers would be appointed to high government positions.

Other than Taheri, though, no account we've seen has mentioned President Ahmadenijad's weird and disturbing plans for most of Iran's 30,000 villages, a number that's apparently too high to allow for adequate control and planning. He's calling for 20,000 of these villages to be destroyed, and their 30 million residents (nearly half the nation's population) to be relocated. READ MORE

Ahmadinejad also thinks Iran should engage in import substitution, making many goods it now purchases from abroad. Wealthier third-world nations like Argentina and bigger ones like India previously attempted this policy with disastrous effects. But Ahmadinejad thinks he can make this work for Iran, a mostly poor, mountainous country with bad roads.

Curiously, his plans parallel many of the economic policies purused by the former Shah as part of his so-called "White Revolution." The current government is more ruthlessly intent on keeping power than the Shah's was so we hesitate to make too exact an analogy. But the foreseeable future is looking grim for this large and very beautiful country.