Monday, July 07, 2003

Michael Leeden writes a wonderful column on the Iranian Revolution that seems to be beginning.
Those odors (of revolution) are beginning to waft through the air of the central squares of Iran's major cities, and have stimulated the people to an increasingly open challenge to the reigning mullahs. There have now been six consecutive nights of demonstrations all over Iran, and although Western reporters there are on a tight leash — the regime has banned all journalists and photographers from the sites of demonstrations, so the "reports" are almost always based on second-hand information — and although there do not seem to be any Western reporters covering events outside Tehran itself, several facts are dramatically clear.

Our cabdriver last week in Heidelberger, Germany left Iran 15 years ago. He said that the people are fed up with the Islamic leaders and he expects the regime to be toppled in less than a year. But he also said that he thought it could easily happen this month. A part of him would like to go back when the Mullahs are toppled, but he has been in Germany so long that he hates to uproot his son from his friends and send him to a strange land. I asked him why he chose Germany when he left Iran. He said that he couldn’t get a Visa to America.

No comments:

Post a Comment