Posted on 02/24/2010 5:16:24 AM PST by nuconvert
At first glance, Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei might seem a happy man. The pro-democracy movement had promised that last Thursday, the 31st anniversary of the Islamic Revolution, would be a turning point for the cause of freedom. But Mr. Khamenei's regime contained the mounting opposition.
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) controlled Tehran with the help of tens of thousands of club-wielding street fighters shipped in from all over the country. Opposition marchers, confined to the northern part of the city, were locked into hit-and-run battles with the regime's professional goons. An opposition attempt at storming the Evin Prison, where more than 3,000 dissidents are being tortured, did not materialize. The would-be liberators failed to break a ring of steel the IRGC threw around the sprawling compound.
With the Internet shut down and foreign radio broadcasts jammed, the regime imposed its own version of events. State television showed large crowds chanting "Death to America" while marching in front of giant portraits of the Supreme Leader.
And yet, despite all of this, Mr. Khamenei's message thanking the pro-regime marchers after the "glorious events of the day" had a surprisingly subdued tone. He has reason to feel unhappy.
For the first time the regime had to transform Tehran into a sealed citadel with checkpoints at all points of entry. The IRGC was in total control. Code-named "Simorgh," after a bird in Persian mythology, its operation created an atmosphere of war in the divided city. Warned that his life may be in danger, Mr. Khamenei was forced to watch the events on TV rather than take his usual personal tour.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
BY AMIR TAHERI
I copy/pasted his name from the article into the keywords... hmmm....must have forgotten to paste it into the Author box
westerners always have misplaced hopes that somehow regimes will change internally. They never do and even the most vile regimes win the support of their people when an outside force attacks. Like Iran, the only way this regime will fall is through outside intervention. Internal revolutions are very rare things and they only happen when 90% of the people are starving. Even then, opposition is difficult as shown by North Korea and Zimbabwe...
Indeed. The only time popular uprisings succeed is when the military remains in its barracks or even joins the opposition.
This is why they succeeded in the Soviet Union and in Marcos’ Philippines and why they failed in China.
I don’t see the Revolutionary Guards acceding to popular will anytime soon.
I also do not advocate invading Iran. We should use our military to quarantine Iran [with air strikes and a naval blockade], but no boots on the ground except for the occasional in-and-out commando raid.
In the situation of Iran, a military dictatorship might be an improvement, if the following conditions applied:
1) They dissolved the Revolutionary Guard and Guardian Council.
2) They arrested and imprisoned the Mullahs who currently run the place, asking that any foreign assets held by them and their families in foreign countries be put in escrow.
3) They immediately stood down from any aggressive military posture against Israel or the US.
4) Opened up their entire nuclear program to international inspection, with the idea of destroying any material outside of the framework of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Agreement.
5) Scheduled internationally supervised free and fair democratic elections, excluding only those complicit in criminal activities under the color of authority in the Mullah regime.
lol. yeah, riight
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.