an interesting facet of this is how so far none of Khameini’s buddies like Hezbollah and Hamas and his other allies in the region have stepped up and done anything in his defense.
Presumably if the mullahs and the Pasdaran/IRGC are toppled, Hezbollah and Hamas are in deep you know what. Their funding and support dries up instantly. No more money and weapons coming fro mTehran. No more training in camps in Mashad and Lavistan. No more upkeep of the Abdullah barracks in Baalbek.
You’d think if the regime was really in trouble, it’d reach out to its friends, ask them to stir things up, help them out. Will Hezbollah and Hamas really sit by and do nothing while their patron is removed?
Also, perhaps this is an opprtunity for the US to make hay on Al Qaeda. Supposed Iran knows or has custody of a number of AQ leaders including Bin Laden’s son, his top startegist Saif al-Adel, and others. I bet someone in the Pasdaran probably knows where the big man himself is. They’re vulnerable.
If Obama was smart he;d tell the mullahs that he’d help them out and help to cool things down and keep them in power in exchange for them giving up the AQ info and leaders. Then, once the deed is done, and we have what we need, he simply tells them “guess what fellas, I lied. you guys are finished. thanks for helping us out with AQ, though”.
They're not - they're the ones out there beating on the people.