8 Hours
To continue my “countdown” theme from yesterday, I write now as time is ticking away in Tehran. As the title of this indicates, in roughly eight hours’ time from now—0830 EDT, 1600 Tehran time—the “Sea of Green” protesters will almost certainly come face-to-face with an opposition vastly stronger and more formidible than anything they have seen thus far in their attempts to show the despotic theocrats of the Iranian government that the latter part of the phrase “Islamic Republic” has become vastly more important over the past thirty years.
Tomorrow, instead of the Basijis striking out with truncheons and fists, protesters will be greeted by the formidible Sepah e Pasdaran, known in the West as the Revolutionary Guards Corps, the elite shock troops founded in defense of the Islamic Republic’s ideals. And, no matter how tarnished these ideals may have become, the Pasdaran are likely to defend them to the death.
This much can be counted on; protesters will march, once again, from Revolution Square to Freedom Square, and somewhere along the way, the Pasdaran will be waiting for them. The question is not “what will happen when the two groups meet”; it is instead “what will happen afterwards?”
The Iranian people, by and large, are obviously not happy with their government: this is clear when one thinks of the estimated three million people per day who have protested Ahmadinejad’s reelection. While the Ayatollah might think that “Flexing muscles on the streets after the election is not right” he is patently wrong. The soul of democracy lives in the right to protest, the right to change. To challenge the establishment is NOT to challenge democracy, it is to allow democracy to flourish.
This is what the Iranian people must realize— that this is not a case of secular students attacking religion; this is not a bunch of spoiled, wealthy and radical children with nothing to do; this is not a fight for or against any particular candidate—instead, it is a battle of ideologies, a fight for the basic freedoms inherent in democracy, basic freedoms long denied to a people who have, throughout history, flourished, but who have lately been oppressed by poor rulers.
Finally, the Iranian people must realize that their battle—a battle of ideology—is the hardest to fight, and the hardest to win. Perseverence is the key. The “Sea of Green” might well run red in a few short hours. But no matter what is lost, one thing must remain—the Iranian people must remember the courage and drive they needed to get this far. Revolution, change, is about pushing limits. If the limit is not broken this time, they must simply keep pushing.
No one with a conscience and a clear mind could oppose the protesters in Tehran. Only time will tell if they are successful, only time will show how steely is the resolve of the patriotic Iranians who are risking their lives to create a better world. Eight hours from now, our questions will be answered—we will know what will happen when two vastly different groups collide.
And the answer may well shake the world.
“Together ants can defeat a lion.” — An Iranian proverb that we must hope is true.
