Yoshie:
> > The Iranian power elite, on the whole, are a lot more divided on > > everything from economics to foreign policy to culture than the US > > power elite are.
me:
> they seem to be unified when it comes to issues of social > conservatism. (In the US, on the other hand, it seems to me that the > difference between the GOPs and Dems is much more about issues of > social conservatism than about economics or even foreign affairs.)
Yoshie:
Well, the point of the article is that they aren't. If they were, there would be no point in speaking of the differences among Khatami's camp, [etc.] in which Ahmadinejad occupies the middle ground. Such differences matter. On economics and foreign policy, differences are larger than on culture...
that was my point. They're unified in their misogynistic interpretation of Islam, for example.
In West Asia in general, divisions in the Iranian power elite are probably larger and more complex than those in any other country except Lebanon and Palestine, ...
my comparison was only with the US. -- Jim Devine / "Because things are the way they are, things will not stay the way they are." -- Bertolt Brecht
