Don't be too nice.

This article focuses on the political instability of Iran and the apathy of citizens toward an upcoming election which is known to be unfair. Twenty-five years after the revolution that saw Ayatollah Khomeini depose the shah amid scenes of mass euphoria, Iran is in a dismal mess--economic, diplomatic and political--and there is no obvious way out, short of the clerics stepping down and handing power to the people in a genuinely free and fair election. Though Iran still has 10% of the world's known oil reserves and more gas than any other country bar Russia, its GDP per head was 30% higher under the shah. Shocking events, such as the death in Iranian custody last year of a female Canadian-Iranian journalist after she was beaten up, continue to remind the world how dissidents can be hounded and tortured. Next week's poll puts the limits of Iran's highly qualified freedom into stark relief. Iran also continues to sponsor terrorism against Israel and, unlike the Arab countries, it has yet even to accept Israel's right to exist.