Iran's Time Has Come

The protest in Teheran and other Iranian cities (including Qom and Meshad)are following same track as 1979 'build up of frustration'.
But note Ayatollah Khamanei's speech on June 19th, where he threatened to unleash the full powers of the state. That the Shah avoided by leaving the country.If the Shah's troops were so disloyal, are we now supposed to believe the narrow sectarians hold a firmer grip on national institutions? Will the rebellion flounder under threats of force, force itself? At night one hears the shouts of Allah-u-Akbar across the roofs. And not just in Tehran.
Many people have gripes. Many would digest and swallow their own poverty if the state itself operated rationally. Allegiance to armies can be very powerful. In recent years these armies (the Pasdaran, the Baseej, et al.)have grown through recruitment of the very poor. Can peasant soldiers think for themselves? Sometimes. Remember the terrible legacy of Irani suicide assaults against the Iraq. That war could have been resolved in its ifrst year, butwas allowed to rage for eight years. A cool 400,000 Iranian children perished in those assaults. That truth the Marja'een (the Shi'ite clerical hierarchy)cannot dispel or banish from the army.
As for the USA: Americans should be sure to correctly pronounce the words "Iraq" and "Iran." Even educated Americans, even the troops in the field, mispronounced these words willfully: ay-raq and ay-ran (with a high nasal 'a' at the end. The correct pronunciation is of course ee-rAq and ee-rAn.Now ytou have no excuse unless, of course, you mean to demean and humilitate the 'enemy' which means you are disqualified as a player, or even as a reader of this blog.