Meditations upon Iran and upon the nature of revolutions
I've been trying to keep up, as best as I can regarding the rapidly unfolding events in Iran following their election. Everywhere I look, I see Americans, Westerners and Anglophones wishing the Iranian people a peaceful victory in their struggle with the oppressive regime of the Islamic Revolutionary government. In an ideal world, I share these sentiments. Unfortunately, given my studies of strategic science, self-defense, politics and the human condition at large, I realize that the world we live in is far from the perfect ideal.
In short, while I wish the Iranian people well in their struggle for freedom and self-determination, I do not expect that this struggle will be achieved throug peaceful means alone. I am not advocating any one path, rather I am making observations. This is the same regime which took 63 hostage from the US Embassy in Tehran in 1979 (a direct violation of long-standing international law, for which we would have been within our rights to declare war upon Iran), the same regime which decided to alter the radar profiles of its F-14 fighters to appear similar to civilian airliners (resulting in the unfortunate events of the USS Vincennes incident, the same government which decided that the bombing of another civilian airliner--Flight 103 over Lockerbee, Scotland--would suffice as revenge for Iran Air Flight 655. While I believe the Iranian people to be a civilized people, their government is nothing but barbaric.
Which means, that despite our best wishes, this struggle will only end in more bloodshed than has already occurred. Right now, people are dying, and suffering greivious injuries, for what they believe in the streets of Tehran and elsewhere in Iran. When the sun rises on this day of June 20th, 2009 over Iran, more people will die in the streets of Tehran and other cities in Iran, for what they believe. Unfortunately, tragically, they will keep on dying as long as they try to pit unarmed massed citizenry against the likes of the Revolutionary Guard and the secret police. What needs to happen now are the same things that happened in 1979. Military and police units need to decide that they serve the people of Iran rather than the Islamic Revolution. Iranians in the streets need to storm police stations and armories, pick the locks and pry the doors until they get to the rooms where Heckler & Koch G3 autorifles lay racked by the hundreds and thousands. Then they need to point those rifles at their oppressors and demand the freedom which is theirs by birthright. If that demand is rebuffed, they need to start shooting the bastards who currently control their nation until those bastards no longer control their nation.
Revolutions are not nice, neat, polite, civilized affairs; they are far more often violent, desperate, bloody, and chaotic affairs, due to the fact that the people who think they have the power won't relinquish it without a deadly, decisive battle. Such is the case in Iran, thus I expect their revolution to ultimately proceed along similar lines. I sincerely pray that it won't come to this, but given what I know of human nature, I fear that these events will come to pass. In that contingency, I pray that those Iranians who die, do not die in vain, but die in the service of a greater ideal of a free Iran. I pray that the revolutionaries are successful, by whatever means they need to effect change in their nation.
I know that the Iranian people have been oppressed for three decades, and that they are not--on the whole--a violent and aggressive people. I've met some of them, and lived among some of them during my time in Illinois; I know how much they long to be free, and to take their rightful place in the community of free nations and free peoples on this planet Earth.
Good luck, to the people of Iran! Viva la Revolution! May God have mercy on you, and upon your oppressive opponents.
In short, while I wish the Iranian people well in their struggle for freedom and self-determination, I do not expect that this struggle will be achieved throug peaceful means alone. I am not advocating any one path, rather I am making observations. This is the same regime which took 63 hostage from the US Embassy in Tehran in 1979 (a direct violation of long-standing international law, for which we would have been within our rights to declare war upon Iran), the same regime which decided to alter the radar profiles of its F-14 fighters to appear similar to civilian airliners (resulting in the unfortunate events of the USS Vincennes incident, the same government which decided that the bombing of another civilian airliner--Flight 103 over Lockerbee, Scotland--would suffice as revenge for Iran Air Flight 655. While I believe the Iranian people to be a civilized people, their government is nothing but barbaric.
Which means, that despite our best wishes, this struggle will only end in more bloodshed than has already occurred. Right now, people are dying, and suffering greivious injuries, for what they believe in the streets of Tehran and elsewhere in Iran. When the sun rises on this day of June 20th, 2009 over Iran, more people will die in the streets of Tehran and other cities in Iran, for what they believe. Unfortunately, tragically, they will keep on dying as long as they try to pit unarmed massed citizenry against the likes of the Revolutionary Guard and the secret police. What needs to happen now are the same things that happened in 1979. Military and police units need to decide that they serve the people of Iran rather than the Islamic Revolution. Iranians in the streets need to storm police stations and armories, pick the locks and pry the doors until they get to the rooms where Heckler & Koch G3 autorifles lay racked by the hundreds and thousands. Then they need to point those rifles at their oppressors and demand the freedom which is theirs by birthright. If that demand is rebuffed, they need to start shooting the bastards who currently control their nation until those bastards no longer control their nation.
Revolutions are not nice, neat, polite, civilized affairs; they are far more often violent, desperate, bloody, and chaotic affairs, due to the fact that the people who think they have the power won't relinquish it without a deadly, decisive battle. Such is the case in Iran, thus I expect their revolution to ultimately proceed along similar lines. I sincerely pray that it won't come to this, but given what I know of human nature, I fear that these events will come to pass. In that contingency, I pray that those Iranians who die, do not die in vain, but die in the service of a greater ideal of a free Iran. I pray that the revolutionaries are successful, by whatever means they need to effect change in their nation.
I know that the Iranian people have been oppressed for three decades, and that they are not--on the whole--a violent and aggressive people. I've met some of them, and lived among some of them during my time in Illinois; I know how much they long to be free, and to take their rightful place in the community of free nations and free peoples on this planet Earth.
Good luck, to the people of Iran! Viva la Revolution! May God have mercy on you, and upon your oppressive opponents.