THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume XI, Issue # 146, June 20, 2009
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
PROTESTS AREN'T ENOUGH TO TOPPLE THE ISLAMIC REPUBLIC
By Dr. Michael Rubin
OBSTACLES TO REGIME CHANGE IN IRAN: THE REGIME'S THEOLOGY & IDEOLOGY -- THE REVOLUTIONARY GUARD --
LIMITING THE REVOLUTIONARY POTENTIAL OF STUDENT PROTESTS & UPRISINGS -- SECURITY CONSULTANTS SUPPLIED BY
THE CHINESE GOVERNMENT -- ASSISTANCE OF EUROPEAN BUSINESSMEN TO THE IRANIAN REGIME IN UPGRAGING ITS
SURVEILLANCE OF COMMUNICATION, INCLUDING THE INTERNET
FULL STORY:
Street protests in Iran are important, but are themselves not enough to force change. The Supreme Leader will not be
swayed because he considers himself accountable to God, not to the people. Indeed, even the Islamic Republic's
clerical establishment is irrelevant in this calculus. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's invocation of folk religion --
his appeals to the messianic Hidden Imam, for example -- is a way to bypass senior religious figures who, according
to Shiite theology, will be among the greatest obstacles to the Hidden Imam's return. Nor does the Supreme Leader,
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, pay too much heed to his fellow clerics in Qom. They have always refused to bestow on
Khamenei a level of religious legitimacy to match his ambition. Today, the majority of Iran's grand ayatollahs oppose
the concept of theological rule. Not by coincidence, the majority are now in prison or under house arrest.
Khamenei can weather the public's disdain so long as the Revolutionary Guard serves as his Praetorian Guard.
Khomeini, the Islamic Republic's founder, formed the Revolutionary Guard to defend his revolutionary vision. It is
more powerful than the Army and answers only to the Supreme Leader. That the Islamic Republic has lost legitimacy
in the eyes of the Iranian public is now evident to the outside world, but it is not news to the regime. In September,
2007, Mohammad Ali Jafari, the new Revolutionary Guard Chief, reconfigured the force into 31 units -- one for each
province and two for Tehran -- on the theory that a velvet revolution posed a greater threat to regime security than
any external enemy. Guardsmen are not stationed in their home cities so that they do not hesitate to fire on crowds
that might include family and friends.
In the public mind, the Islamic revolution 30 years ago looms large. The regime is not aloof to this. It understands the
Shah's mistakes and is determined not to repeat them. Next month marks the 10th anniversary of the student uprising,
which erupted after the security forces attacked a student dormitory. Their brutality shocked the Iranian public, and
demonstrations spread throughout the country. For a few days, regime survival was also subject to speculation.
In the aftermath of the protests, the Chinese government supplied security consultants to Tehran. Rather than bash
heads and risk protests and endless cycles of mourning, Iranian security services began photographing
demonstrations, after which they would arrest participants over the course of a month when they were alone and
could not spark mob reaction. With the assistance of European businessmen, the Iranian government upgraded its
surveillance of communication (and the Internet).
Ultimately, the theocracy will fall, only if servicemen in the Revolutionary Guard switch sides. There will be
compromise. The end will come only over Khamenei's dead body. Certainly, Iran today is a tinderbox. The question is
whether the regime is better at putting out fires than demonstrators are at starting them.
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
The Middle East & the Problem of Iran
American Foreign Policy -- The Middle East
Islamism & Jihadism -- The Threat of Radical Islam
Page Three
Page Two
Page One
International Politics & World Disorder:
War, Peace, & Geopolitics in the Real World:
Foreign Affairs & U.S. National Security
Page Two
Page One
Islamist Terrorist Attacks on the U.S.A.
Osama bin Laden & the Islamist Declaration of War
Against the U.S.A. & Western Civilization
Islamist International Terrorism &
U.S. Intelligence Agencies
U.S. National Security Strategy
Dr. Michael Rubin, a Ph.D. in History (Yale University, 1999) and a specialist in Middle Eastern politics, Islamic culture and Islamist
ideology, is a senior editor of the Middle East Quarterly, a senior lecturer at the Naval Postgraduate School, and a resident
scholar at the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research. Dr Rubin is author of Into the Shadows: Radical
Vigilantes in Khatami's Iran (Washington Institute for Near East Policy, 2001) and is co-author, with Dr. Patrick Clawson,
of Eternal Iran: Continuity and Chaos (Palgrave Macmillan, 2005). Dr. Rubin served as political advisor to the Coalition
Provisional Authority in Baghdad (2003-2004); staff advisor on Iran and Iraq in the Office of the U.S. Secretary of Defense
(2002-2004); visiting lecturer in the Departments of History and International Relations at Hebrew University of Jerusalem
(2001-2002); visiting lecturer at the Universities of Sulaymani, Salahuddin, and Duhok in Iraqi Kurdistan (2000-2001); Soref
Fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy (1999-2000); and visiting lecturer in the Department of History at Yale
University (1999-2000). He has been a fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, the Leonard Davis Institute at Hebrew
University, and the Carnegie Council on Ethics and International Affairs.
The foregoing article by Dr. Rubin was originally published in the Los Angeles Times, June 19, 2009, and
can be found on the Internet website maintained by the Middle East Forum, a foreign policy think tank which seeks to
define and promote American interests in the Middle East, defining U.S. interests to include fighting radical Islam,
working for Palestinian Arab acceptance of the State of Israel, improving the management of U.S. efforts to promote
constitutional democracy in the Middle East, reducing America's energy dependence on the Middle East, more robustly
asserting U.S. interests vis-à-vis Saudi Arabia, and countering the Iranian threat.
(Article URL: http://www.meforum.org/article/2166/protests-not-enough-to-topple-islamic-republic)
Republished with Permission of the Middle East Forum
Reprinted from the Middle East Forum News
mefnews@meforum.org (MEF NEWS)
June 20, 2009
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Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
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