It shah would be nice to see a regime change in Iran.
After 46 years of people predicting this, I am beginning to doubt that 92 million Iranians are about to topple their theocracy, considering 78 million of them were born after the ayatollah took over in 1979. This is the only life they have known.
Iran’s Islamic regime is a terrible player in the world.
Tehran remains the sugar daddy of terror, sending suitcases of cash to Hezbollah, the Houthis, and Hamas while keeping the fires burning from the Mediterranean to the Red Sea. The Iranian people deserve better than being hostages to men who dream in blood.
I would love to see the people rise and overthrow their Muslim masters but people prefer security over freedom. The ayatollah still controls the army.
The American press every few years informs us that a revolution is about to take place. This is one of those years.
Lucy Van Pelt holds the ball so temptingly. The Charlie Brown in me wants Iranians to try one more time to make the kick. Peanuts was a very Christian comic strip. The one thing that Jesus gave Man was hope.
On Friday, the Wall Street Journal trotted out “Iran Eases Social Rules Amid Crises—but Crushes Dissent.”
The story began, “Live music is blaring on the streets of Tehran, women are ditching their mandatory hijabs and young people are dancing in cafes, as authorities allow a degree of social freedom not seen since the Islamic Revolution of 1979.
“At the same time, however, the government is carrying out a widespread crackdown on dissidents and has executed more people this year than in nearly four decades.
“Both moves have the same objective: preserving a system still shaken by last summer’s 12 day war with Israel and by sanctions that have sent the economy spiraling.”
Wow. Sounds like freedom is just a Kumbaya away.
Then in Paragraph 8 we learn, “The number of executions carried out in Iran has surged to levels not seen in decades. Over 1,870 people have been executed in Iran so far this year, around twice as many as last year, according to data collected by the Washington-based Abdorrahman Boroumand Center, an advocacy group that documents human rights violations in Iran. More than 490 people have been executed since the start of November alone, surpassing the total for all of 2021.”
Desperation by the mullahs? Perhaps.
The story said, “The mass protests that rocked the country in 2022 erupted after the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, a young woman who had been detained by the country’s morality police for violating the country’s dress code requiring that women wear the hijab and dress modestly in public. Thousands of women responded by removing their headscarves in a collective act of defiance.”
Hooray! Women will lead the way.
Except the next paragraph said, “The protests were quelled, and more than 500 people killed. Since then authorities have often turned a blind eye to women discarding the Islamic headscarf.”
500 people killed. Defund police must not be a thing among Iranian politicians.
I get a Tiananmen Square vibe on this. The Western world got its underwear in knots over that one in 1989. Red China made some changes, sure, but 36 years later the communist party still runs the country.
Red China is now so powerful that it shut down the Western world with a simple virus. To this day, no one has called Red China out for committing biological warfare funded by America’s deep state.
President Trump is distancing himself from the revolution while simultaneously warning Iranian leaders not to restart their nuke program.
When asked about regime change in Iran on Monday, the US president drew a line.
“I’m not going to talk about overthrow of a regime,” Trump said, adding that Iran’s leadership already faces severe internal pressure.
“They’ve got a lot of problems. They have tremendous inflation. Their economy is bust. And I know that people aren’t so happy.”
He told reporters Monday that Iranians are increasingly discontented with their rulers. “There’s tremendous discontent. They form 100,000, 200,000 people. All of a sudden, people start getting shot, and that group disbands pretty quickly,” he said.
The most evil thing about dictators is their willingness to kill their own people to retain power. Stalin was willing to starve 6 million Ukrainians just to get the middle class to give up and submit. The people loved him and mourned his death. Ditto Mao. Ditto Kim Jong Il.
Qasem Soleimani’s funeral drew so many people that 50 died in a stampede.
Nevertheless, the American media is predicting an overthrow of the ayatollah. Again. Reporting from Istanbul, the Washington Post said:
Anti-government demonstrations erupted in Iran this week, with initial protests by shop owners in the capital Tehran over the plummeting value of the Iranian currency spreading by Wednesday to students, workers and other elements of society across the country.
Iranians have struggled for years with raging inflation, anemic economic growth and international isolation, largely because of mismanagement, corruption and sanctions imposed by the United States and other countries over Iran’s nuclear program. Official figures show inflation reaching 50 percent this year and the overall economy shrinking slightly. But in recent days, the situation has grown acute, with the Iranian rial’s value falling sharply, repeatedly reaching record lows.
Simmering discontent turned to open protest on Sunday, when videos shared on social media showed shopkeepers in some of Tehran’s commercial centers closing their stores. Demonstrators chanted, “Don’t be afraid, don’t be afraid! We are all together,” and called for others to shutter their stores in solidarity.
It was a rare instance in the history of Iran’s Islamic government, established in 1979, that protests had been sparked by the country’s “bazaari” merchant class. In initiating the demonstrations, shop owners and other merchants signaled that severe economic distress had spread beyond the poor and to those relatively better off, said Mahdi Ghodsi, an economist at the Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies. Past rounds of economic protest in Iran, particularly in 2017, were driven by poorer segments of society, such as workers or farmers.
That the middle class is joining the protests is encouraging, but as long as the mullahs control the army, they are safe.
In December 1989, Nicolae Ceaușescu faced the same sort of protests. The generals, however, refused to carry out his orders to shoot the demonstrators. Instead, on December 25, 1989, he and his wife were arrested, tried, convicted and executed.
So generals have been known to say no. Maybe this time. Maybe.
This article first appeared on Don Surber’s Substack. Reprinted here with permission.
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