@23, RWE.

This is all going according to plan – George W. Bush’s plan.

Invasion of Iraq. Democracy in Iraq. Subsequent destabilization of Iran. Syria, Hamas, Hezbollah, North Korea all lose a key ally. Sound familiar? Yeah, THAT Plan.

Agreed. Let’s not forget that 70% of Iranians are 30 years old or less. In the first week they learned that the regime can truly be afraid of them. As the ruling clique bares its teeth, the insurgents will figure out less confrontational methods, strikes, pamphlets, graffiti, nightly chants from the roofs, whatever. The Iranian economy is already precarious as it is, it won’t take much to bring it to its knees. Can the chinese and the russians come together to bail the mullahs out? Who is kidding whom?

Tyrants always alienate their subjects. Under so-called “normal” circumstances people would rather live on their knees than die on their feet, so the tyrants win, as a general rule, but what rule is devoid of exception, particularly what brutal rule?

What is “normal”? The only norm that transcends culture is a profoundly human norm, the yearning for freedom! Let us remember that the American revolution did not have a chance, either!