Great Iran Demo Photos

The Boston Globe has some terrific pictures of the protests in Iran, of the regime’s fascist thugs beating men and women in the streets, and of the victims of that violence.

Like most of you, I’ve been watching events in Iran with great interest.  Many other bloggers, including some who are getting camera phone pics and twitter updates straight from Tehran, are saturating that topic far better than I could, so I won’t wade into that field.  Because of well-armed thugs like the Basij and the Revolutionary Guards, the odds favor of this ending the way things did in Burma, when the highest hopes of the people were slaughtered and tossed into the Irrawaddy.  Still, while it’s easy to say that repression always wins, bear a few things in mind:  first, the Savak and the Stasi probably thought so, too, at one time; second, Iran’s isolation from the world has been wholly ineffective; third, Iran’s population, particularly near its power centers, is overwhelmingly young and increasingly liberal; fourth, the mullahs themselves are divided into opposing factions of villains; and finally, the number of protesters may have reached the million mark, perhaps exceeding the regime’s present capacity to deal with them without a wholesale, Tienanmen-style slaughter that the Army could conceivably oppose.

It’s hard to see how the Iranian regime emerges from this situation with its long-term stability intact, or with any credible pretense of a popular mandate.

So much hinges on the courage of the Iranian people because the effects of a revolution in Iran would go so far beyond Iran itself.  For one thing, it’s probably the only way to keep The Bomb out of Ahmedinejad’s hands.  Not even a week ago, I was speculating that such an outcome might not happen soon.  If it does, it could save millions of lives, end large-scale support for Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Mahdi Army, and thus contribute materially to peace and greater freedom in Iraq, Lebanon, and even (of all places) Palestine.  A downsizing of Iran’s support for Syria would increase pressure for democratic change there, too, and reduce Syria’s terror-supporting capacity.  And finally, it would deprive North Korea of one of its largest WMD customers — Iran is a major purchaser of North Korean missiles, and Iran reportedly funded the nuclear reactor in Syria.