Why Aren’t There Millions of Iranians in the Streets?
People keep asking me how come the Iranian people seem to be missing in action amidst the Middle Eastern insurrection. Fair enough. No matter that the whole process was kicked off, and inspired by, the massive demonstrations in the streets of Iran’s major cities following the electoral fraud of June, 2009. There is fighting in Libya, and there is slaughter in Syria, but so far as we can see from our newspapers and TV coverage, the only thing going on in Iran is continued repression by the regime and not much in the way of pushback from the people. If it is true, I am asked, that the overwhelming majority of Iranians hate the regime, why aren’t they doing more to bring it down?
My first answer is that they are doing quite a bit to bring it down, but it is no longer in the form to which we had become accustomed: big public demonstrations calling for an end to the regime. To be sure, some elements of those protests are still very much with us, such as the chanting of “death to the dictator” from the rooftops in the big cities. But there are no longer large gatherings of protesters, even on university campuses, which have long been centers of protest.
In part, that is due to the repressive terror unleashed by the regime, which extends to increasingly efficient actions against “social networks” like Facebook and Twitter, and also to such things as rooftop satellite dishes that have enabled the Iranians to remain in touch with the outside world. In recent months more than 350,000 such dishes have been taken down by the Basij–here are some pictures of the censors hard at work–and supreme leader Ali Khamenei has been promised that all satellite dishes will be gone by the end of Ramadan. Even if, as is likely, many dishes will remain, it is now very difficult to reach anywhere near the number of Iranians who used to watch Western broadcasts, including the many coming from exile communities in Europe and, above all, Southern California.
The lack of large scale public protest—at least, of the monster crowds we saw for many months– is also the result of a conscious decision by the leaders of the Green Movement. Once it was obvious that the leaders of the Western world would do nothing to support the uprising against the regime, Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi decided it would be irresponsible to continue to call for their people to risk their lives in the streets. They accordingly changed strategy from direct confrontation to sustained pressure, hoping thereby to produce an implosion of the sort that ended Communist rule throughout the Soviet Empire.
That strategy is well underway. We cannot see it in action, but we can certainly see clear signs of internal stresses and strains, and even gaping fissures within the ruling edifice. I have tried to call attention to such phenomena as rebellion within the elite Revolutionary Guards, producing constant turnover within the officer corps, and on occasion the regime has resorted to mass executions of some of the rebels. If there were no real pressure on the regime, we would not be seeing the melodramatic fights involving President Ahmadinejad, one day with members of Parliament, the next with the supreme leader and his entourage. There is pressure, the tyrants are well aware of it, and the people sense the uncertainty within the regime.
A key element in this strategy is well known to the players but almost never discussed in the analyses from the self-proclaimed experts on things Persian: the near total lack of trust among the country’s leaders, combined with the ongoing collaboration of top officials with the opposition. This is a leitmotif of Persian history, as you could see at the time of the Khomeini Revolution of 1979, when no less a personage than General Hossein Fardoust, the head of the shah’s secret intelligence service, was later revealed to have been in cahoots with the enemies of the regime. This was proven when he was entrusted with the central task of organizing Khomeini’s secret service once the shah had fallen.
Meanwhile, it is quite wrong to view Iran as thoroughly pacified by the regime. Strikes are now commonplace, and there is a real shooting war going on in Kurdistan over by the Iraqi border. There has been a lot of fighting on both sides, as the Kurds and official regime spokesmen have confirmed. Iraqi Parliamentarians have denounced the invasion of their territory by Iranian Revolutionary Guards.
It is hard to get reliable statistics about casualties, but the toll has been significant, including one of the most important Iranian commanders, Abbas Asemi, who was responsible for the repression in the holy city of Qom.
The same area has been the site of the repeated bombing of oil and gas pipelines from Iran to Turkey, a campaign that verges on epidemic proportions. It may well be that at least some of these are part of the shooting war with the Kurds, although I cannot verify this widely-held suspicion. Here is a rundown of recent bombings , beginning about two weeks ago:
An explosion struck an oil pipeline in Iran’s oil-rich southwestern province of Khuzestan early Friday, triggering a blaze that took firefighters hours to put out, news agencies reported.
Abdohossein Rezaeizadeh, spokesman for the provinces’ branch of the Iranian national oil company, told the official IRNA news agency that the causes of the blast and the subsequent fire were under investigation…
The semi-official Mehr news agency said the explosion happened at around 1:30 a.m near Susa, some 430 miles (700 kilometers) southwest of Tehran. The flames rose 130 feet (40 meters) up into the sky, the report said.
The pipeline feeds up to 4,000 barrels of oil a day to the nearby Ahvaz oil processing unit, some 62 miles (100 kilometers) south of the site of the explosion.
Iran’s oil and gas sector has been hit by an increasing number of explosions recently but authorities rarely provide any explanation for them.
Most of the pipelines are decades old and encumbered with lack of maintenance and frequent technical failures. However, there have been occasional cases of sabotage, mostly reported in the northwest.
Last week, an explosion struck a major pipeline carrying gas to Turkey. The blast, which temporarily cut the gas flow, took place in morning hours near a border crossing but no one was injured. Authorities blamed it on Kurdish rebels operating in the area.
In April, three explosions hit gas pipelines near the holy city of Qom in central Iran, briefly cutting the flow of gas from Iran’s gas refineries in the south to the country’s northwest.
Similar explosions rocked the pipeline in the same area in February. Officials at the time said the blasts were not caused by technical failures but did not say if they were acts of sabotage.
And here is a longer rundown from a reliable web site in Farsi. And here is a report of an explosion today on the Turkish side of the border, which hints at Kurdish involvement.
Leading from behind and embracing our enemies. We’ll have a lot of work to do supporting the opposition movements and repairing relations with allies after Obama is voted out of office.
Politics, like math, is hard, especially when they shoot at you. How do you protest against religious leaders and for a more Western style of government in the middle east without being accused of being dupes for America and the Jews? Even if you know such a thing is the right course to take, it can’t be easy. Paranoia and the fear of being shamed are at the root of most middle eastern culture.
The UN Security Council resolution 1929 June 10th of last year
was never implemented because Iran made it clear that boarding one of their ships would be seen as an act of war.
We are on a razor thin wire and the slightest burp will easily lead us into WWIII and nuclear conflagration.
Something is going to set off this ticking time bomb,everything seems to be coming together for a September/October window.
Iran is eager for revenge after the latest Assassination of one of their nuclear scientist and the Stuxnet cyber attack.
I am ‘wary’ of the 10 year anniversary of 9/11/2001 in the month of 9/11.
I think we’re going to be unprepared with the next major Islamic(Iran) terrorist attack as we were before.The corrupt,decadent,broken system will fail us again.
Incompetence and stupidity are rewarded as Janet Napolitano ans Eric Holder will tell you.
Don’t compare the Iranian Madhi Muslims with South African apartheid or the Burma gangsters.This crowd wants a global conflagration and they smell weakness
with not one of their ships boarded 14 months after U.N. resolution 1929,especially as they watch the impotent West in Libya and it’s impotence with Syria’s Assad and his five months of murder mayhem in the streets.
It’s not hard to see that the pot on the stove is about to boil over,especially with Amadinejad’s open plan for Israel.That would be the perfect,most desirable distraction for the whole Islamic world.
Marcel with all due respect I hope your wrong, because if your right the best President Down-Grade will do is blame the tea party and have Hillary issue a strongly worded statement.
Maybe because the best thing that can happen to protesters is that the police miss when shooting at them? Outcomes kind of go steeply downhill from there. You do not want to be taken by the autorities in Iran as opposed to England.
General Fardoost was not only the head of the Special Secratariat of the Shah and eventually the Secret Service, he was also his closest friend and confidant from their early childhood and youth as classmates at Le Rosey (Richard Helms was also there at the same time). He was the only one allowed, outside of his immediate family, to refer to the Shah by his first name in private conversations. Et tu Brute? Unfortunately the list of Iranians who sold out their country throughout the post Islamic period is very long.
On your main argument in the article, I do not believe it is in Obama’s interest to weaken Iran and its surrogate, Syria. After all their increasing strength naturally drains resources from the US further weakening our economy and deployable assets, military or otherwise. And is that not well in line with the philosophy of a man who perceives the US, as constituted, as evil?
La Rosee, wasn’t it radish? And I quite agree that Obama shows no sign of wanting the fall of Assad, let alone of Khamenei.
It is actually Le Rosey (www.lerosey.ch). Guess the Swiss must have flunked AP French.
On another note, I would be very interested to listen to Mrs. Fardoost’s interview with Harvard’s oral history of Iran. But, for some reason, it is sealed for 50 years. However you will find a wealth of information there from those who were players in Iran.
http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~iohp/transcripts/index2.html
thanks for the educational material, radish. i hope that Lady Fardoost’s stuff is worth the wait. I may not last that long…
Your daily exercise together with the nachis I am sending your way will assure another 50 with gezunt ahf dein kop.
insh’allah, radish. and halevai.
Interesting article about a faction of the Iranian opposition:
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/michaelweiss/100101139/camp-ashraf-is-the-waco-compound-of-iraq-but-what-can-the-us-do-to-protect-its-inhabitants/
Sam, there’s plenty of dissent here but I try to trash insulting and rude rants. Like yours. Which I trashed.
With all due respect to Mr. Ledeen, I would like to suggest another hypothesis: The interested reader my find the article “Now Out of Never” suggestive.
Kuran, Timur Kuran. Now Out of Never: The Element of Surprise in the East European Revolution of 1989. World Politics. Vol. 44, No. 1 (Oct., 1991), pp. 7-48.
Available (no pay-wall) at: http://www.uvm.edu/~pdodds/research/papers/others/1991/kuran1991a.pdf
thanks, it’s a fine piece of work. with regard to the fall of the Soviet Empire, i was one of those who was convinced it would happen, but had no idea how long it would take–i thought the Soviet regime was weak and hollow, and said so. But, like many of your examples, I was surprised when it happened. I didn’t think that we in the Reagan Administration had done enough…but perhaps we had.
They saw what happened in 2009.
Neda shot down, President Divot goes out for ice cream.
They wait for us to act next year.
“There is a real shooting war going on in Kurdistan over by the Iraqi border. There has been a lot of fighting on both sides, as the Kurds and official regime spokesmen have confirmed.”
We may be missing a huge opportunity here by not supplying the Kurds with everything they need to attack Iranian forces. Think about it. We have American troops already in Iraq, right on the border with the Kurds, and we can supply them with anything they need. Also, we could use Kurdistan as a base of operations for CIA and Special Ops forces against the Iranian regime. Use these bases to supply rebels within Iran to stir up more opposition against the mullahs. The Kurds are the few people in the area that actually LIKE us and they would be happy to have us help defend Kurdistan against the Iranians. Kurdistan could be the key to having a ground presence that could be used against the regime in Tehran. We ought to use it, NOW. Before we lose it.
yes, Libertyship, I think we should be helping the Kurds.
Given the Mullah track record, I think it is fear of disfigurement and the loss of important body parts that most dampens the revolutionary heart in Iran. That and the fact that nobody in the world cares about them, least of all the eurotrash elite and B. Hussein Obama. I think that they have very good reasons to keep their necks firmly tucked. Let the opportunity come.
Thank you Mr Ledeen for yet another of your eye opening articles.
To my mind the Iranian people do not want any change and like their
horrible regime .Psychologists should try and find answers to this
strange phenomenon and have a look at what goes on in about 160 out
of 192 countries in the U.N.
You are wrong. The majority of the Iranian people would welcome the day when the clergy are hanged for the crimes they have committed. In fact, a large number of my compatriots would prefer a retrurn to Zoroastrianism finally washing themselves from the sin committed in Al-Qadesiah 1400 years ago. The ugliest act of the clergy has been the introduction of hatred in the Iranian psyche. Trust me Mr. Goldfeld that, given a chance, the majority of Iranians would rather be drinking vodka chased by youghurt and cucumbers and making merry rather than interjecting themselves in Lebanon and Syria or pumping up the murderous Hammas.
True revolutionaries rely on their brain power rather than some external force to do their work or funnel them money. Seems to me post WWII, we’ve gone into battle with nations that compared to our mighty military resourses, were stone age stick and stones folks. Korea was the last encounter with any air power to speak of….unless one wants to count Iraq’s. Between the French and the U.S. 20 years was spent in battle with North Vietnam who hadn’t any match for the opposing military arsenals of weapons such as an air force or navy, missle systems, etc., and yet, neither the French or the U.S. won those wars. Likewise, for the tens years we’ve battled Iraq and Afghanistan…or now Libya. How long has Israel been fighting forces that are no match in terms of military resourses?
With a little strategic brain power, determined ‘internal’ revolutionaries can successfully overthrow (kill) most of the governments hierarchy without much money or very elaborate resources…especially, in places like Iran. Simply a matter of their will! The folks in Libya are obviously brain dead and chose to take on the standing government in classic military fashion which has proven long and drawn out with no success in taking out the government hiearchy….even with all the high tech foreign military support.
I do believe the United States should feed the insurgents with as much as we can surreptitiously, keeping the movements alive.
Do they have anyone who will step up and lead?
There may not be any real movement until you have a drastic shortage of supplies to keep a normal lifestyle going;and that may mean a food shortage. Father at the dinner table with hungry children, is a great motivator.
Isn’t the tactic of Ms. Hillary “asking” Assad to step down a waste of time? Good grief! Aren’t UN Resolutions a recognized waste of time? Why do we make this evasive-sounding “effort” to be doing something, anything when it’s such a facade for appeasement? Or, maybe that in itself is the answer to those questions.
I know we’ve got serious over-extension problems with our military and all of these domestic unfunded entitlements….so then isn’t a possible answer a quarantine of Iran and Syria, knowing that it won’t be airtight, but at least that’s a more economical approach than massive troop and logistics deployment? I’ll bet the Kurds are impatient to help us.
Surely our application of the medieval tactic of isolation/siege is appropriate to a medieval-minded religion based-political system encompassing a smaller landmass than that of the former Soviet empire?
That worked, assisted by internal Soviet collapses of course, but it worked over time.
The only safe places in the region to ‘invest’ are Kurdistan, Baluchistan and greater al-Ahwaz/ Arabistan; but faster, Please!
#14
….please explain just who should be investing exactly what in those odd places? Were you trying to provoke such a question? Don’t be coy.
He is just trying to get a rise. Don’t mind him. He wants to see a reaction to his revisionist history by mentioning Greater Al Ahwaz and probably the “Arabian” Gulf, although he didn’t mention it. He is also probably still dreaming of Toledo and Alhambra. His theories belong in the same trash bin as Irving’s theories on the Holocaust.
Charlie, We do not discuss issues with third parties.
Haorseradish, We have stopped wasting our time in arguing with racists and chauvinists — and with those who think they have a ‘Divine’ right to rule.
Ummmm… Errrr.. Let’s see. Oh yeah, I remember. My people never have claimed divinity. The lot that is ruling them has. The catch is though that their divinity has two horns and a tail. And, oh yeah, by the way, wasn’t it your lot that forced the “religion” down their throats? I may be wrong. Senility, I suppose. Also, what does claiming divinity have to do with revisionist history? For that matter what does it have to do with the price of tea in Beijing? The ergo is there but the sum ain’t. One other thing. Do you know me? Nope. So, you don’t know if I am a racist or a chauvnist. But then I do know that the Mufti of Jerusalem was a racist during WW2. Remember the pretty little Palestinian SS (wannabe) squads? How quaint. Anyway, cheers and bonne chance with the 72. Call Pfizer ahead of time.
Radish,
Although I don’t want to waste my time quoting from it, I know your Mien Kampf, I mean Shahnamah of Firdausi, very well.
What is this “Farr-e Yazdaan” other than ‘Divine Right’ on the basis which every pre-Islam mythical to historical cut-throat like Kasraa Anushiravan ruled over the Persian empire?
Anushiravan buried alive, upside down, thousands of Mazdakis and hanged Mazdak himself upside down to be pierced to dath by the arrows of his Persian archers. Didn’t he do this on the basis of ‘fatwas’ from his Zoroastrian Ayatollahs , Moubadaan, and Vali-ye Faqih / Moubadaan-Moubad?
What is this Aariaa-iy-Nezhaad thing other than fascist racism? Do you want me remind you of the blatant sexist, anti-women, stuff in your Mien Kampf?
Typo-Correction:
Please read: “on the basis OF which” instead of “on the basis which” ..
and: “death” instead of “dath”
Abu Safiyah: this is the last comment I will post on this matter. the blog is about Iran today. you guys can fight out theology and ancient history somewhere else…and I do not welcome references calling others Nazis.
Your exposure of the liberal media’s cover up of the Iranian desire to be free is great.
But then you bring “apartheid South Africa” into it, and I realise there are some things you really don’t understand at all.
Perhaps that was all before your time.
Keep up the good work!
thanks for your kind words, but i spent quite a bit of time in apartheid South Africa, and i understood it very well indeed. For starters, i understood that
calling it that doesn’t carry any real substance, and in order to find out if someone understood it, you had to ask a few questions.
Very illuminating piece. The question I have is towards the end, about the claim that thousands of Iranians are leading the Syrian crackdown of Assad. I don’t doubt that there are many, but could you provide some hard evidence of these huge numbers and the extent of their participation? Thanks.
sure, larry. shall i name the sources so they can be tortured?
“US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, when asked why the United States has not yet called for Syria’s president to step down, said Washington wants other nations to add their voices,”
Will the Obama administration ever see the “Soros one world order” does not work. We can all see how it works. Look at the Libya.
What is the US expected to do for the Iranians? What CAN we do? With Iran, we lose no matter what we do. We’ll be accused of trying to invade Iran or we’ll be blamed if their revolution fails. We might as well leave them be. They got themselves into this when they followed Khomeini. They are going to have to get themselves out. Like most Middle Eastern countries, the people of Iran may oppose their leaders but that doesn’t mean they want to be our friends. Where is there any indication that they seek peace and friendship with the US? They still don’t trust us. Why should we trust them?
Pat: we can do the same thing for them that we did for Solidarity in Poland and dissidents in the USSR: speak out for them, get them funding for strikes etc., raise the names of political prisoners at all international conferences etc. The Iranian people are so pro-American that Thomas Friedman once called Iran the only red state in the Middle East.
Pro-American? I believe the Iranians are pro-democracy, but pro-American? I don’t see it. Are you saying the Iranian people want to get rid of sharia law? Unless and until all non-Muslims are given equal status with Muslims in Iran, it will be hard for me to accept that Iranians are pro-American. Thomas Friedman is not exactly a reliable source. He lost his credibility long ago.
pat: do some homework and then we’ll talk. Yes, pro-American. Most opp leaders call for separation of church and state, by the way. Try some of my past blogs or (4) books on Iran, easy reading, I hope…
Because virtually everything we’re told about the middle east is backwards.
- Iranians hate their oppressive islamic theocracy and are yearning to overthrow it.
No they don’t. They brought it into power. Most Iranians love their oppressive islamic theocracy because most muslims in Iran are fundamentalist muslim slaves. They also have a genocidal hatred of Israel and America and the West. And they’d gladly give up all of their basic human rights and freedoms in order to live under “allah’s laws”. Iran is one of the few countries in the “muslim world” where islamic sharia law is nearly fully enforced. So it’s a paradise for the muslims who take their islamic faith seriously.
- People in the middle east hate their oppressive regimes.
Nope. Weak minded retarded barbarians love strong man dictatorships.
- The middle east is slowly modernizing and reforming as evidenced by the arab spring.
Nope. They’re going backwards; not forwards. Fundamentalist islam is on the rise in the middle east; not declining. These revolts are being carried out largely by islamists and islamists are the ones gaining the most from them.
The middle east is simply a backwards and extremely dangerous muslim hell hole. You should be doing everything possible to undermine them; not helping them to develope. They’ll only use that prosperity to fund more jihads against us.
I think a better question is why aren’t there millions of Americans in the street bringing down our corrupt government?
Pretty damn obvious the ballot box doesn’t work.
I have no interest in muslim countries. I could care less if they slaughter each other. I’m tired of wasting American lives for NOTHING.
well, sablegsd, you have two easy options: go to England and join the riots, or wait a few weeks or months here…
Michael,
The Iranian “turning point” occurred in 2009.
Odds are, the Iranian “tipping point” will occur when the Iranian police, Pasdaran and Basigi (sp.) refuse to maim and kill more innocent people.
As you well know, it took the East Germans about 28 years to get a belly full of killing their own people. The Iranian savages (Ayatollahs/Mullahs)have been brutalizing their people since 1979 (32 years).
I sincerly believe, we will witness the extermination of the Ayatollahs and Mullahs.
Sure hope the Iranian Ayatollahs and Mullahs read this.
HooRah!
Regards
Isn’t it amazing! On one hand the very Saudi Arabia that pulls its ambassador from Syria because ruthless behavior of Assad, the SAME king, send thousands of his troops to Bahrain to crush people in the up rising there. Because they are shia!!!! And because some RG people pissed on main street there and they could smell it all the way from Jeddah!
You see, ALL f..g leaders from the most democratic and to the most oppressive in Iran, they all word-out the whole people killing and suffering in their own ways! Yet people keep getting killed for their basic human rights! Is this crazy or what?
Oh wait a minute! So those people in Israel protesting there are probably connected to AQ, or Iran!!!! Oh.. they are f..g communists—I think this is what the NY Jews might say, when they go there to visit their homeland in a fancy apartment across the wall!!! Those worthless communist godless people…
Black is white, white is red, red is the ugly yellow and then all you people keep painting and painting crap all over other craps, and making the employees of Information Ministry almost unemployed! Unlike Orwell that was getting a pay check at his ministry back then, many of you do it free of charge and so naturally.
We all got so good at it that painting crap over smelly and ugly pictures and events are so normal, and we just let it out easier than body gas. And Dr. Ledeen could be called the Van Gogh of all painters! And I’m the guy at lower than minimum wage just keep spilling paint all over, like now. Still I’m wondering how he could artistically paint over the visit of Khomeni’s son to AEI! Yet, he keep saying the paint is so dry and no need to worry about smearing it! LOL…
Now why Iranians not coming to streets:
Iranian people are not coming to streets now because they did all those “revolutionary” stuff 30 years ago. They made a huge mess worse than Japan’s nuclear mess. The Iranian people in Green movement and other groups are NOT afraid of these people to fight guns with guns or knives with knives. And they know they have to go through suffering to be forgiven by people. Yes, they are in political fasting for what has happened to Iran and Iranians. And they feel still they need to stay in sauna and sweat a little more.
Doing anything else, like fighting the oppressive militants is the END of Green movement, just as MEK cult is hated and now look more like Zombies than anything else. To EU politicians that look more like tourists, and there are many in U.S., but they make sure to get paid to be a tourist!!! LOL…Iranians are hoping for regime’s implosion.
GOOD NEWS: Signs of the implosion is when Ahmadinejad talks about giving advice to UK about riots there!!! Or Naghdi, the criminal Basij leader who spitted load of similar crap about UK riots. If these people have no SHAME and in total denial of their own countries, then we should consider it as a great omen that their ends is near and when it comes, they have no idea where its hitting them.
Events in Israel, it is basically telling everyone around the world, and in particular in the middle east, stop painting over your own crap and paint other people’s crap as more crap!! So no matter you are a Jew, Muslim, and hell-bound God-less worthless communist, we are all trying to make a living, and we say F…k that Maslow’s hierarchy theory to self actualization and as it stand today they can’t take it anymore.
Now you guys, start painting.
Just on the complaint concerning Saudi Arabia’s pulling of its Ambassador from Syria as an anti-Assad gesture while the same (Saudis)sent troops to save the Al-Khalifa regime of Bahrain:
The human rights violations in Bahrain during the so-called Arab Spring-2011 are not comparable to what has happened and is happening in Syria. For the period — before and after the entry of the Saudi troops — less than ten deaths and less than fifty arrests of the Bahraini demonstrator and activists have been reported. The deaths are being compensated financially, and many of the arrested have been released. Also, some sincere efforts to negotiate, and reform the system to benefit the Shias are being made. We all know about horrible systematic torture and destruction of cities of the Syrians opposed to the Bashar regime. I have not seen reports of similar things to the same extent happening in Bahrain.
Also, the dangers for the vital interests of the US and its regional allies as a result of a change of regime in Bahrain, and of its replacement with obviously pro-Ayatollahi-Iran elements, are not comparable to the risks, if any, of the fall of the Assad regime succeeded by any anti-Bashar&Co. Syrian group. The US & Allies including Saudi Arabia must be very stupid a la Jimmy Carter to allow such a change happen in Bahrain — just in the name of human rights as understood by our ignorant and duped Liberals, and propagated by America-haters of the Organized Left.
Any effort by the hijacked Iranian regime to expand its influence beyond its borders should be nipped in the bud be it in Bahrain or anywhere else. Clearly the objectives of the Islamic Republic is to establish a totalitarian Islamic puppet state in Bahrain mirroring its own values, which will ultimately lead to the subjugation of the indigenous population. They will suffer the same consequence as that of the Iranian people. We have seen how this influence can be devastating to innocent people as witnessed in Lebanaon. I would be the first to applaud Iran’s influence in the neighborhood once freedom, egalitarianism and respect for human, religoius and minority rights would be their motive force; once it has shown itself to be a responsible member of the civilized world. But that will not happen until the fall of the malevolent theocracy. Until such time, hands off the rest of the world or they will be cut. Only if we had someone in the White House who would follow through with such a threat.
PhD.Ledeen my SR.71 Lockheed Martin Jet (BLACK BIRD) how are you?
WOW…., do you know why I’m reading your super power articles?
When I read your masterpiece articles I feel like someone located behind a super power weapon, a highly far more advanced sophisticate strategic gun that can shoot more and more, continuously without hesitate and interrupt, when I read your articles I feel I’m Achilles, I’m Hercules, I feel I can fight without boredom, exhaustion and collapse.
Philosopher doctor Ledeen, inspire us and drive the real spirit of courage and combative ghosts of great worriers of history into our souls.
Command the kids, we will fight till death.
Why no Iranian Spring? Maybe it is time we forget the wishful thinking and admit that outside of the westernized enclaves in a few cities the current Iranian regime has the support of the people.
Michael,the iranian regime and the two terrorist incidents in Buenos Aires.
Please,not forgive this.Its a leading case.
I am not very superb with English but I get hold this rattling easygoing to read.