Things get interesting in Iran

From The New York Times:

TEHRAN, Dec. 20 — As protests broke out last week at a prestigious university here, cutting short a speech by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Babak Zamanian could only watch from afar. He was on crutches, having been clubbed by supporters of the president and had his foot run over by a motorcycle during a less publicized student demonstration a few days earlier.

But the significance of the confrontation was easy to grasp, even from a distance, said Mr. Zamanian, a leader of a student political group.

[. . .]

The protest, punctuated by shouts of “Death to the dictator,” was the first widely publicized outcry against Mr. Ahmadinejad, one that was reflected Friday in local elections, where voters turned out in droves to vote for his opponents.

The students’ complaints largely mirrored public frustrations over the president’s crackdown on civil liberties, his blundering economic policies and his harsh oratory against the West, which they fear will isolate the country.

Two things to keep in mind. One is that Ahmadinejad is the handpuppet of the mullahs who actually rule Iran. He neither says nor does anything that they do not approve and they are not subject to defeat in any election.

The other thing to consider is that the kind of unrest we are seeing here will only produce a government-toppling revolution when the government lacks the will to effectively oppose it - remember Tiananmen Square.

The reason that the Iranian Revolution was able to overthrow the Shah and bring Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini to power was the contemptible weakness and naivete of failed US president Jimmy Carter. The government of Islamic Iran suffers from no such irresolution.

Still this is a good sign. We have heard for a long time that the average Iranian has spent too long living under the lash of Islamic tyranny to have any illusions about the ability of sharia to bring about happiness or prosperity and would love to see things go back to the way they were under the Shah, except without the secret police and torture chambers.

In fact surveys have shown that the average Iranian has a higher opinion of the United States than the average staff writer or editor of the New York Times (this is not a joke). If an Iranian revolutionary organization could be induced to rise up and declare a provisional government and capture any territory (even if it is just their university campus) the US could recognize them and send support.

And as an added bonus hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of moonbats' heads would explode like July 4th firecrackers all across the US and Europe.