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Posted on 04/15/2003 5:02:01 PM PDT by freedom44
TEHRAN--The day after Saddam Hussein's statue was toppled in Baghdad, I was curious to gauge reaction on the streets of Tehran. I started with taxi drivers, my barometers of public opinion. Often, perhaps because of the monotonous and frustrating nature of their job (traffic in Tehran is horrendous), they speak candidly.
The first cabbie had loud, banned music blaring from the radio. When I asked him what he thought, he said without hesitation, "'These guys' (usually used to mean the mullahs in power) are next -- they are scared."
Here, your dress and demeanor betrays your politics, or at least whether you are pro-mullah or not. If you're a woman and your hejab (traditional cover) is lax, or if you're a clean-shaven man, people speak openly to you about their downright hatred of the regime. My cabbie added, "Ali Gedda (referring to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei with the popular "pauper Ali") is giving the Friday prayer speech, so they must be scared." And then, with a huge smile: "Our turn is next."
The young people at the upscale party I attended that evening, all of them U.S. educated, were pleased about the fall of Saddam. A couple of them, sipping their illegal whiskeys, claimed with pride, "We are no Afghanistan or Iraq. America will never attack us. But these guys are scared, they know things have to change."
Another taxi driver on the way back happily told me that the Bassijis -- voluntary paramilitary forces dedicated to the regime -- would give sweets out on the streets the next day. When I told him that I was surprised that people close to the regime would be happy about the Americans being next door, he said, "The mullahs are scared, but after all, Saddam killed a million of our youth. That is what the Bassijis are cheering."
My grocery man said with a smile, "All tyrants come to justice -- it will be 'these guys' turn next."
The reformist-leaning newspaper I read printed on the front page an open letter written by the reformist front of Second Khordad (the date of their election to parliament). The reformists boldly warned "those in power and with authority" to curb the "irresponsible" acts of "some elements" who jeopardize national interests and the very sovereignty of the government. The letter went on to discuss how nuclear power should be used for peaceful means, and how those with authority should make sure it does not become a political tool for the foreign usurpers.
In another paper, I read a small column reporting a rumor that Mohammad Khatami, our president, had been summoned to a closed meeting in parliament to explain why his government had not achieved reconciliation with the United States during the Clinton administration.
I watched the Friday Prayer speech given by Khamenei, the Supreme Leader of the Revolution and a hardliner. Until now, he and others in the government had been vocally opposed to what they claimed was a British and American "war of aggression" -- but the depiction of the clergy as foxes in Iranian folklore is not baseless. Trained in scholastic argumentation, they have a lawyer's talent for finding ways out of rigid stances.
Khamenei claimed that we share the happiness of the Iraqi people. Saddam was a tyrant and a dangerous neighbor. But the Americans, by reverting back to old-style colonialism, have made a great mistake. Today, world opinion will not allow blatant usurpation of sovereignty. He used the single most unifying criticism of United States in the region, the American support of Israel, as a warning that their presence was aggressive in nature.
But despite all the traditional anti-American rhetoric, even the hardliners had to express measured pleasure at the fall of their longtime foe. No propaganda machine, however clever, could ignore the transparent happiness of the Iraqi people.
By far the most telling sign of the ruling elite's fear that Saddam's fate may befall them was former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani's declaration that a referendum should be held to see if the people want reconciliation with the Americans. Up to now, any talk of referendum was dubbed as treasonous by the hardliners. But when one bully falls so swiftly, within earshot, other bullies lose rest. There is a feeling of imminent change in Tehran.
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