While watching the events in Iran unfold, I have been drawn back to memories of the fall of Communism under Gorbachev and Yeltsin on the tank. The Soviets closed off all phones, but weren't aware enough of the internet, and the listserves and email ran wild, though there was only one connection into the USSR, over a modem. (There were requests for Westerners not to use up bandwidth going into the USSR.) I kept many of those emails from a usenet I frequented at the time. Here's a couple from those heady days:

” To all people of good will!
We want you to know that the democracy in the USSR
is in great danger. The junta of Yanaev, Yazov,
Kruchkov etc. try to displace legal power with
the help of military forces. They want to return
to the old communist system, to put an end to
perestroika and glasnost. Under their power there
will be no human rights, no disarmament, no market
economy.
Right now the center of Moscow is surrounded by
tanks and soldiers. Thousands of people are standing
around the house of Russian Parliament ready to defend
Russian Governement and Boris Yeltsin. A lot of mines
and plants are on strike. Do not believe that soviet
people support this anti-constitutional committee.
We, the youth of this country, do not want anybody
to bring back the past.
We need your moral support! Demand that your
governements do not have any affairs with Yanaev
and his accomplices. Demand the return of legal
president Gorbachev. Down with the communist tyranny!”

” Date: Tue, 20 Aug 91 00:17:31 +0300 (MSD)
Subject: Re: Info for Soviet Trip

Hi!
Don't worry, we're OK, though frightened and angry.
Moscow is full of tanks and military machines, I hate them.
They try to close all mass media, they shuted up CNN an hour ago,
soviet TV transmites opera and old movies.
But, thanks Heaven, they don't consider RELCOM mass media or
they simply forgot about it. Now we transmit the information
enough to put us in prison for the rest of our life
Hope, all will turn out well at long last…”

“From: (Dimitri Rakitin)
Newsgroups: talk.politics.soviet
Date: 21 Aug 91 15:49:33 GMT
Sender: news-server@relcom
Organization: Steepler Ltd.
Lines: 48

WE WON !!!”

Twitter is good for items like the last, but I think we've lost something in not being able to hear more information, as we did during the fall of Communism.

I don't want to get into “ends justifies the means” thinking. I suspect that misinformation will cause more trouble down the road, even if it appears to be driving something positive in the present. There's a lot to be said for knowing the truth — after all, it'll “set you free”.

While watching the events in Iran unfold, I have been drawn back to memories of the fall of Communism under Gorbachev and Yeltsin on the tank. The Soviets closed off all phones, but weren't aware enough of the internet, and the listserves and email ran wild, though there was only one connection into the USSR, over a modem. (There were requests for Westerners not to use up bandwidth going into the USSR.) I kept many of those emails from a usenet I frequented at the time. Here's a couple from those heady days:

” To all people of good will!
We want you to know that the democracy in the USSR
is in great danger. The junta of Yanaev, Yazov,
Kruchkov etc. try to displace legal power with
the help of military forces. They want to return
to the old communist system, to put an end to
perestroika and glasnost. Under their power there
will be no human rights, no disarmament, no market
economy.
Right now the center of Moscow is surrounded by
tanks and soldiers. Thousands of people are standing
around the house of Russian Parliament ready to defend
Russian Governement and Boris Yeltsin. A lot of mines
and plants are on strike. Do not believe that soviet
people support this anti-constitutional committee.
We, the youth of this country, do not want anybody
to bring back the past.
We need your moral support! Demand that your
governements do not have any affairs with Yanaev
and his accomplices. Demand the return of legal
president Gorbachev. Down with the communist tyranny!”

” Date: Tue, 20 Aug 91 00:17:31 +0300 (MSD)
Subject: Re: Info for Soviet Trip

Hi!
Don't worry, we're OK, though frightened and angry.
Moscow is full of tanks and military machines, I hate them.
They try to close all mass media, they shuted up CNN an hour ago,
soviet TV transmites opera and old movies.
But, thanks Heaven, they don't consider RELCOM mass media or
they simply forgot about it. Now we transmit the information
enough to put us in prison for the rest of our life
Hope, all will turn out well at long last…”

“From: (Dimitri Rakitin)
Newsgroups: talk.politics.soviet
Date: 21 Aug 91 15:49:33 GMT
Sender: news-server@relcom
Organization: Steepler Ltd.
Lines: 48

WE WON !!!”

Twitter is good for items like the last, but I think we've lost something in not being able to hear more information, as we did during the fall of Communism.

I don't want to get into “ends justifies the means” thinking. I suspect that misinformation will cause more trouble down the road, even if it appears to be driving something positive in the present. There's a lot to be said for knowing the truth — after all, it'll “set you free”.

If there is one lesson that we can take from the debacle in Iraq, it is that foreign powers have limited abilities to influence the internal politics. Though the Shiites and Sunnis have major differences, they share a common hatred of the United States.