Implications of the Murder of Neda Agha Soltan
As most people may now know, a young woman, Neda Agha Soltan, was gunned down by a Basiji sniper as she stood at a street intersection with her father, and the image of her dying in the street has become famous around the world. This is my take on this incident, and what it implies for Iran, the character of the Iranian Revolution,
The basiji, of course, are an arm of the terrorist Iranian Revolutionary Guards, being a paramilitary organization created to function as "morality police." It is the basiji who, before the current troubles, were famous for their courage and honor in beating up women whom they considered to be dressed "immodestly," and in some cases extended their military skills to beating up small children for various and sundry reasons. They have also been known to beat up men, but only when they outnumbered their victims by at least 2 to 1.
They thus rank with the legendary Immortals of the ancient Persian Emperors, or indeed any of the noblest military heroes, in being carbon-based life forms who are composed of oxy-protiens in aqueous solutions and burn glucose with oxygen for energy. They may even be sapient, though the evidence for this is considerably less clear than in the case of the nonhuman great apes, and probably should have the right to live in some protected preserve, though not to to mingle freely with actual human beings.
What is significant about this bold military action is that Neda was gunned down by a sniper, rather than being hit by a stray bullet as was first assumed. This means that one of the Basiji, immediately sensing the grave peril which a young woman standing on a street-corner with her father posed to the Islamic Republic of Iran, picked her out as a target in preference to the other ones available.
All kidding aside, this shows the immense depths of misogyny inherent in the basiji, and why it's a really really bad idea to hand out rifles and legal authority to use them the sort of people who in most countries would be serial killers -- or rather wannabe serial killers, as most of such people would be too afraid of getting caught and put in prison. I would judge it as fairly likely that the basijin in question saw a pretty girl on a street corner -- the kind who would never marry him or even smile at him unless under duress, and decided to kill her because she looked young and pretty and alive.
The Iranian regime has loosed psychopaths against its own people. They have even imported Palestinian Arabs -- foreigners despised by the Persians -- into Iran and turned them against the Iranians.
This is often the last thing that a regime does. Surely, somewhere in the Iranian Armed Forces, there is some high-ranking general who joined up to protect his people, and is watching with dismay as his own government guns them down. Surely, one of those generals has the decency to do something, to march on Tehran and slay the monstrous theocracy that has brought his people nothing but war and misery, shame and isolation for the last 30 years, and is now bringing them slaughter in the streets.
Iranians, act soon, for if you fail this time, within a decade your cities may perish in the nuclear fires that your own mad regime has called down upon them to trigger an imaginary Armageddon. You die by the dozens now; you will die by the millions then; and all the lovely dreams of your ancient culture disappear in flames.
There's STILL time. But not much more time.
Act.
The basiji, of course, are an arm of the terrorist Iranian Revolutionary Guards, being a paramilitary organization created to function as "morality police." It is the basiji who, before the current troubles, were famous for their courage and honor in beating up women whom they considered to be dressed "immodestly," and in some cases extended their military skills to beating up small children for various and sundry reasons. They have also been known to beat up men, but only when they outnumbered their victims by at least 2 to 1.
They thus rank with the legendary Immortals of the ancient Persian Emperors, or indeed any of the noblest military heroes, in being carbon-based life forms who are composed of oxy-protiens in aqueous solutions and burn glucose with oxygen for energy. They may even be sapient, though the evidence for this is considerably less clear than in the case of the nonhuman great apes, and probably should have the right to live in some protected preserve, though not to to mingle freely with actual human beings.
What is significant about this bold military action is that Neda was gunned down by a sniper, rather than being hit by a stray bullet as was first assumed. This means that one of the Basiji, immediately sensing the grave peril which a young woman standing on a street-corner with her father posed to the Islamic Republic of Iran, picked her out as a target in preference to the other ones available.
All kidding aside, this shows the immense depths of misogyny inherent in the basiji, and why it's a really really bad idea to hand out rifles and legal authority to use them the sort of people who in most countries would be serial killers -- or rather wannabe serial killers, as most of such people would be too afraid of getting caught and put in prison. I would judge it as fairly likely that the basijin in question saw a pretty girl on a street corner -- the kind who would never marry him or even smile at him unless under duress, and decided to kill her because she looked young and pretty and alive.
The Iranian regime has loosed psychopaths against its own people. They have even imported Palestinian Arabs -- foreigners despised by the Persians -- into Iran and turned them against the Iranians.
This is often the last thing that a regime does. Surely, somewhere in the Iranian Armed Forces, there is some high-ranking general who joined up to protect his people, and is watching with dismay as his own government guns them down. Surely, one of those generals has the decency to do something, to march on Tehran and slay the monstrous theocracy that has brought his people nothing but war and misery, shame and isolation for the last 30 years, and is now bringing them slaughter in the streets.
Iranians, act soon, for if you fail this time, within a decade your cities may perish in the nuclear fires that your own mad regime has called down upon them to trigger an imaginary Armageddon. You die by the dozens now; you will die by the millions then; and all the lovely dreams of your ancient culture disappear in flames.
There's STILL time. But not much more time.
Act.