Photograph Source: Darafsh – CC BY-SA 4.0
Iranians have reached a juncture where they must be very careful. This genuine and authentic national uprising is gaining momentum and even the skeptics are envisioning a tomorrow where they are free from being a lab rat in a social experiment governed by delusional religious hallucinations founded on ignorance. What’s being written on the walls is, “You failed.”
Failure is what the Islamic Republic of Iran regime must accept before it continues to make the wrong decisions based on mistaken assumptions that could very easily lead to Iran being turned into a Syria or Libya.
Though some may dismiss such an outcome and label it as regime misinformation it is a very real possibility, and has its roots going back all the way to the famous interview that General Clark gave on Democracy Now!, during which he said,
“Because I had been through the Pentagon right after 9/11. About ten days after 9/11, I went through the Pentagon and I saw Secretary Rumsfeld and Deputy Secretary Wolfowitz. I went downstairs just to say hello to some of the people on the Joint Staff who used to work for me, and one of the generals called me in. He said, “Sir, you’ve got to come in and talk to me a second.” I said, “Well, you’re too busy.” He said, “No, no.” He says, “We’ve made the decision we’re going to war with Iraq.” This was on or about the 20th of September. I said, “We’re going to war with Iraq? Why?” He said, “I don’t know.” He said, “I guess they don’t know what else to do.” So I said, “Well, did they find some information connecting Saddam to al-Qaeda?” He said, “No, no.” He says, “There’s nothing new that way. They just made the decision to go to war with Iraq.” He said, “I guess it’s like we don’t know what to do about terrorists, but we’ve got a good military and we can take down governments.” And he said, “I guess if the only tool you have is a hammer, every problem has to look like a nail.” So I came back to see him a few weeks later, and by that time we were bombing in Afghanistan. I said, “Are we still going to war with Iraq?” And he said, “Oh, it’s worse than that.” He reached over on his desk. He picked up a piece of paper. And he said, “I just got this down from upstairs” — meaning the Secretary of Defense’s office — “today.” And he said, “This is a memo that describes how we’re going to take out seven countries in five years, starting with Iraq, and then Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and, finishing off, Iran.” I said, “Is it classified?” He said, “Yes, sir.” I said, “Well, don’t show it to me.” And I saw him a year or so ago, and I said, “You remember that?” He said, “Sir, I didn’t show you that memo! I didn’t show it to you!”
Those people that wrote that recommendation are still around and they still wield great power within the US Empire. And you can be sure that they have been waiting for the situation in Iran to become “ripe” for their direct interference and self-serving agenda. Their central objective is a weak Iran, so weak that it is unable to play any significant role in the Belt and Road Initiative. They want an Iran resembling Syria, which would make Netanyahu and his gang very happy.
One must not assume that such people have any interest in Iran becoming a democracy, or stable, or economically advanced, or play any significant role in the region. They want a destroyed Iran, or one that is totally obedient to their geopolitical objectives. There are no nice guys in this realm of international power politics.
On the other hand, the regime insiders must be re-calculating because they now face a situation where they are totally dependent on the front-line soldiers. The big unknown is what will it take for them to turn to the other side. This switch is all that it would take. And it is not that inconceivable. It could happen any day.
Or, things could drag on as they have been doing during the past 65 days, with more and more people joining in the protests. At some point the regime will be forced to act and given its past record and its blinkered and distorted views of reality it will probably do something stupid and make the situation worse. Given its inherent incompetence, created through its policy of only allowing obedient, uneducated, retards to be managers, the regime will continue to crumble. At the moment it has no response to being called a child killer, now numbering close to 60, all under the age of eighteen. What possible response can it give? Shame is still a very powerful force in Iran.
One recent development worth referring to is the large crowds of expatriates showing their support, which was soon followed with the inevitable confrontation within the “overseas opposition”, which has never been on the same wave length. The traitorous MEK need to disband, deprogram, and cut all ties with the noecons, Zionists, and Saudi money, if they are to be taken seriously by other Iranians. Masih Alinejad needs to get over her megalomania and come back down to earth, plus apologize for meeting with the ghouls of the Empire who only want the destruction of Iran. Our always unemployed Shah-in-waiting needs to be totally transparent and keep to his promise of not getting involved in creating a throne for himself, no matter how ‘constitutional’.
But most important of all is the mass education of those out in the streets on how to use the tools of democracy and how to arrive at good decisions that are made through consensus, open discussion, correct voting procedures, and the creation of organizations that are free of bureaucratic entanglements. If the young people who are leading this uprising do not have a clear common vision then how is the new Iran to be created? It is critical that this common vision takes shape in a form that it can be implemented. If this does not happen then there exists a danger that this uprising will be hijacked in the same way that the uprising of 1978 was snatched away from the Iranian people and distorted into a religious dictatorship that is now run by fake Muslims, thieves, and traitors.
This hijacking is a real danger and if they are able to sink in their claws then freeing ourselves from those claws will be very difficult. It’s best not to get hooked and that can be done through being mindful of this danger.
One step forward that can be taken is the formation of an advisory council. Not a political gathering, but simply a meeting of Iranians of all stripes who can help shape a good future.
Maybe it is time to talk to each other – our future depends on it.
