A Revolution's Lessons

The Iranian Student Movement Up to the Minute Reports ^ | July 15, 2003 | Pejman Yousefzadeh

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A Revolution's Lessons

By Pejman Yousefzadeh 07/15/2003 AP

The July 9th protests against the Islamic regime in Iran started out with the reform movement announcing that it would cancel protests because of concerns that the regime would crack down harshly on the protestors. In reward for the forbearance, leaders of the reform movement were kidnapped by regime enforcers.

Protests against the regime ultimately occurred, but it is worth noting these events to point out that the Islamic regime is absolutely devoted to putting a stop to any effort to reform or change it. The mullahs are not only ruthless about stifling dissent, they have gone so far as to get non-Iranian riot police in order to have a police force that is less reluctant to engage in savagery against Iranian demonstrators (the theory being that an Iranian police force might have greater difficulty in putting down revolts that were instituted by their own countrymen). The internal police force has been specifically trained to help preserve the power of the regime, and is skilled at clamping down on internal revolt. In instituting these safeguards, the mullahs demonstrate that they have learned from history.

Many of the leaders of the Islamic regime were revolutionaries themselves 25 years ago -- revolutionaries against the regime of Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi. The Shah had a powerful military, and a fearsome security apparatus: SAVAK (the Persian acronym and the words it represents translates to "Organization for State Information and Security" in English). However, the Shah was under increasing Western pressure to curb the abuses engaged in by SAVAK, and his military force was not skilled at internal crowd control and domestic peacekeeping. Because the Shah's security apparatus was not prepared to put down revolts against his regime, the Islamic Revolution -- given so little chance to succeed -- was able to bring an end to the Pahlavi dynasty, and to nearly two and a half millennia of monarchy in Iran/Persia.

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