| #1 You know, I was just reading the latest reports about the Iranian situation today, and it occurs to me that the mullahs may have missed their best chance already to do a Chinese-type (Tienanmen Square emulation) response to put down this revolution in gestation. To my observation, the best time for them to have done this would have been in July or earlier. However, they didn't take all-out action then, and it strikes me, though some may disagree, that for all the bellicose rhetoric coming out of the Guardians' Council, their actual action in response to the democrats has been, well, somewhat on the halfhearted side, as one counts the usual tactics of authoritarian and totalitarian regimes. In particular, their backdown on the Aghajeri matter was a -huge- ceding of the psychological advantage to the democratic movement. If these reports I'm reading are right, and the mullahs can't even be 100% sure of the allegiance of the regular Army anymore (and why should they? The lower ranks are composed of exactly the same sort of young people who are jamming the streets of Teheran with demonstrations), then they really and truly are in more trouble than you can shake a stick at. |