Iranian People 1, Regime 0

Battle w/ Police – Tehran, Iran – June 20th 2009

It would be great if everything were going this way. But tragically the regime has had its victims, the most poignant being a young woman named Neda, who has instantly become the face of the resistance at the cost of her blood:

Words can’t express the galvanizing effect this has had, not just in Iran, but around the world (and signficantly, throughout the Islamosphere). Try as they might, the regime cannot distract people with crap about the Joooooos and the Great Satan being the real enemy. A significant (and God willing, very large) percentage of Iranians now see just exactly who their enemy is.

Of course, as with every revolution, the revolutionaries have a much stronger sense of what’s wrong than of what’s right. So one thrills with excitement at the sense of resolve–and with dread at where it could lead if the Revolutionaries are successful to read Tweets like:

This is a point of no return….the poeple who brought a revolution 30 years ago can do it again. there are many Neda’s in IRAN now.

There is a candle light memorial for Neda this afternoon between 5-7pm in 7tir Sq in Tehran.
I’m not especially convinced an Iran that returns to the allegedly pure goals of the Ayatollah Khomeini is going to be a very happy Iran, since it could well be argued that the regime is carrying out precisely his vision. But that is for the people of Iran to work out. And so far, they have done a magnificent job of laboring to keep this a peaceful revolution aginst overwhelming odds. I wish I could say I was hopeful that it will succeed quickly and without much bloodshed, but I fear the worst (though I also can’t help but believe that the regime has so de-legitimized itself that it *cannot* last).

At any rate, I’m happy to see the news networks, though still focusing most of their energies on the truly important events of our age, such as Chris Brown’s hearing, are finally beginning to bestir themselves some two weeks into the single most consequential events of the year (and possibly the second half of the decade) and groggily take notice. Meanwhile, for the best coverage of the whole thing, nothing yet beat what Andrew Sullivan has been able to accomplish with his laptop. That thing should go into the Journalism Hall of Fame some day. He has put the entire MSM to shame for nearly two weeks now.

God bless the people of Iran.