Something is happening in Iran that defies the experts and expectations of the world. On Monday, December 7, (16 Azar, Persian Calendar), almost six months after the June 12 elections, the streets of major Iranian cities were filled with a Sea of Green-clad protesters. 16 Azar, National Student Day, is a day to commemorate the student activism that helped create modern Iran. Since the early 1930s, high school and college aged students have bee the backbone of change. Once again, students are leading the way in Iran. Yesterday, thousands of police and Basij (paramilitary thugs recruited by the regime) lined up on universities campuses, and thousands of students walked straight into their hate. What was supposed to be another day of protests, co opting government holidays to protest the oppressive regime, turned into something SO much larger. The result were protests not quite as large, but much more wide spread than even the protests right after the election.
The scale of the protests are only part of the story. What was supposed to be a day of protests turned into two days. What was supposed to be localized in Iran spread to the entire country. What was supposed to involve Iranian students sparked the Awakening of the Kurds. All of this even prompted the Ayatollah Makarem-Shirazi to say that the regime “should negotiate,” with the opposition.
The Kurds are an interesting twist to this story. Large populations of Kurds live in Kurdistan, a region that includes parts of Iran, Iraq, Turkey and Syria. The Kurds have been a semiautonomous, highly oppressed group of people. They are part of a growing ethnic unrest in Iran, recognized by Time Magazine as one of the top 10 biggest unreported story of 2009. If these minority groups are now turning against the Iranian regime then civil war may very well be on the horizon there.
There are other reasons to be concerned about the regime there. Despite the fact that few know about it, American citizens are being attacked, their families and friends are being imprisoned without cause, our enemies are being equipped with some pretty serious weapons by a major nation-state, and we are letting our best chance to stop it slip away, one brutal beating at a time.
As the Ahmadinejad/Ayatollah Khamenei Regime is feeling increased pressure from the United States, Israel, and the rest of the world over its nuclear program, the government crackdown on its own citizens is becoming increasingly totalitarian. Iran has now started to “blackmail” Iranian expatriots, throwing friends and family of regime critics in prison. The government is even forcing people to log in to Facebook in order to get through airport security.
And while the regime is building nuclear capabilities, they are also supplying terrorist and militia forces, such as Hezbollah and Hamas, with weapons, a threat the world cannot long ignore. As the regime become less stabile, chaos could easily find a home within Iran’s borders.
The time has come to discuss our options with Iran. The world cannot watch while their human rights violations are captured on Youtube (warning: Graphic material). Taking a wider view, Iran’s refusal to cooperate on the nuclear issue should inspire our government to stand up in solidarity with these student protesters.
We cannot, and should not, commit US forces to a war in Iran, but there are other options. While Iran is stepping up their cyber attacks, we could use our own government capabilities to shut down government web sites, communications networks, and other vital systems. We could be supporting projects like Haystack in order to protect the identity of Iranian expatriots. The US needs to pressure Russia and China to move forward with sanctions. The regime needs to know that cooperating with the international community will pay, and fighting it will hurt.
Of course, it may be possible that the US government has already started its attack on the Iranian regime. Iran has accused the US and Israel of kidnapping one of their leading nuclear scientists.
Most of all, however, the government needs to acknowledge the Green Movement in Iran, honor the brave students who have fallen victim to the regime, and support the revolution. They are there, working to overthrow our worst enemy, and we’re sitting back and watching them fall.
- Iranian university students under attack
Posted in Foreign Policy, Iran, Politics
One Million Voices for Iran