HOW HARD TO PUSH? IRAN PROTEST LEADERS DEBATE

NY Post ^ | June 25, 2009 | Amir Taheri

[Scanian]

AS Iranians mark another day of mourning for demonstrators killed by the Is lamist forces last week, protest-movement leaders are engaged in behind-the-scenes debates over strategy.

Pointing to the diminishing size of the protest crowds in Tehran, some Khomeinist-regime apologists have already concluded that the protest movement is fizzling out.

In fact, the movement has won a major victory by ending the myth that the regime controls "the street" through "the popular masses." The last 12 days have shown that the opposition can produce larger, more determined crowds. The only way the regime can regain control of "the street" is by deploying security forces in a de facto state of emergency.

A regime that used crowds as a means of political communication is now afraid of crowds.

That fear was manifest yesterday, when the authorities cancelled a demonstration they'd ordered against alleged British intervention in Iranian affairs. Fears that the opposition might exploit the rent-a-mob gathering as cover for its own demonstration persuaded the regime to scrap the exercise.

"We know that we can have the streets whenever we want," says an adviser to Mir Hussein Mousavi, the former prime minister who challenged President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the disputed June 12 presidential election. "The question is: Where do we go from here?"

Broadly speaking, three competing strategies are emerging within the opposition.

Mousavi has adopted a minimalist approach, modeled on the 1980s strategy of Polish trade-union leader Lech Walesa. This consists of making a single demand within the constitution -- a demand that, if granted, could alter the rules of the game.

Mousavi is calling for fresh elections. This demand enjoys wide support across the political spectrum. Even some Ahmadinejad supporters say they might go along with a rerun so that their standard-bearer could win with an even greater majority.

[Westbrook]

Arm yourselves and fight back in kind.

Watch the movie “Defiance”, where a small group of Jews in Belarus were able to survive the Holocaust by hitting German patrols to arm themselves and feed themselves.

Go for it.

[Cheburashka]

Watch the movie “Defiance”, where a small group of Jews in Belarus were able to survive the Holocaust by hitting German patrols to arm themselves and feed themselves.

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Yeah, and 95% plus of the German Army was tied up at the front at the time. 0% of the Iranian Army and the Pasdaran is currently tied up at the front. Different situation, expect a different result.

When the Army and the Pasdaran start shooting their officers, then the fun begins.