I think the Lebanese elections caught him up by the short and curlies. I am sure he was expecting a Hezballah victory. While I also expected that result, somehow the Christians of the country were able to make one last hurrah; Lebanon being on the brink of a failed state... Sorry Tom, thanks for playing.
Which brings us to the question of Iran. With the advent of photo cell phones that connect to the internet with texting capability, there is no way that the thugocracy of the day will be able to contain information from the world anymore. I monitored Twitter for a couple of hours today and it was amazing what was being shared. Most importantly portals to get messages out of Iran through several alternate portals once the gov had shut down the traditional portals. You just can't beat your citizenry up in the streets anymore and think you can supress the info from the rest of the world. $100 bucks for a cell phone gains you access to the entire world!