Following up on James Petras, Seumas Milne and assorted co-thinkers, I point you to a piece by Reese Erlich on 'Iran and Leftist Confusion'. You'll have to read your way past an opening reference to the US as 'the Empire' and one or two other things, but Erlich takes on three central theses of those 'progressive authors, academics and bloggers bending themselves into knots about the current crisis in Iran': (1) that there's nothing to indicate that the election was stolen; (2) that the US is behind the recent unrest; and (3) that Ahmadinejad is an anti-imperialist with progressive credentials. He responds to each one and concludes by asking the leftist critics, 'Whose side are you on?'
One thing that is striking here is that the answer to his question is already provided by what has gone before. They are against what America is for; and therefore they are for those trying to put down the democratic movement in Iran. Digest that who can. Why are they not against Ahmadinejad and for Iranian democrats? Search me. It beggars belief. It's part of the long, slow downward road of the verkrappt. (Thanks: DP.)