The Axis of Lesser Evil  

I always feel sorry for people given a choice between bad and worse in an election (a feeling familiar to most of us the anglo world).

A member of the Iranian diaspora summed it up, wryly, in just one phrase: "Welcome to the axis of lesser evil."

The sophisticated Persian civilization invented chess. The nuclear negotiations between Iran and the EU-3 (France, Germany and Great Britain) is nothing but a game of chess. Iranians are now taking pleasure in reducing President George W Bush's moves to dust. Bush said that last week's presidential elections were a sham. A flood of electors (62%) went to the polls to demonstrate otherwise. Ali Yunesi, Iran's Intelligence Minister, quipped, sarcastically, "Thank you. He motivated people to vote in retaliation." Now the counter move is the axis of lesser evil: the reformist movement backing pragmatist Ayatollah Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani en masse in the second and deciding round of voting on Friday in a runoff against against ultra-hawk Mahmud Ahmadinejad. A committee called Students' Anti-Fascism Headquarters is even traveling to rural Iran to campaign for Rafsanjani.