No Happy Ending to Tehran's Street Protests

by John M. Curtis
(310) 204-8700

Copyright February 15, 2011
All Rights Reserved.                                             

                  When Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak finally waved the white flag Feb. 10 and resigned, the pro-reform movement spread like wildfire to neighboring Jordan, Bahrain, Yemen and now Iran.  Mubarak’s sudden flip-flop, letting pro-reform protesters drive him out of office, had more to do with an angry mob marching with torches on his presidential palace than philosophical support to transforming Egyptian society.  Mubarak, after all, inherited his position after his predecessor, Nobel Laureate Anwar Sadat, was gunned down Oct. 6, 1981 by Islamic radicals for making peace with Israel in 1978.  News about Mubarak’s unspeakable wealth soured the U.S. and other Western powers from supporting the corrupt dictator, realizing the octogenerian was indeed Egypt’s biggest tomb raider.  Mubarak’s wealth—and his survival instincts—drove him from Egypt’s presidential palace.

            Amassing one of the world’s largest fortunes, the 82-year-old Mubarak saw no reason to stay, fight and order his military to massacre large numbers of Egyptians in Cairo’s Tahrir Square, the symbol of Egypt’s protest movement.  Unlike the Chinese Communists at Tiananmen Square April 14, 1989 that ruthlessly rolled over pro-Democracy demonstrators with tanks, Mubarak didn’t have the stomach for mass murder.  Iran’s leaders follow more closely the Chinese Communists, realizing that if they wish to stay in power, they have to commit unspeakable atrocities to pull it off.  Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and his puppet President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad know the brutality needed to set down the street protests.  Authorities massacred hundreds after Ahmadinejad’s fraudulent reelection June 19, 2009.  Public beatings, persecution, mass arrests and cryptic executions followed.

            When opposition leaders, like Ahmadinejad’s main rival Mir-Hossain Mousavi, objected to the rigged election, the government cracked down, suppressing what remained of the opposition.  Unlike Mubarak, Iran’s mullahs have no problem murdering its citizens in the name of preserving the revolution.  It was Iran’s 1979 revolutionary leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khoemenei, that showed no restraint suppressing pro-Shah forces seeking government reforms.  “We believe the people have lost their patience and demand capital punishment,” said Iran’s conservative lawmakers, showing no tolerance for political dissent or anti-government protests.  “Death to Mousavi, Karroubi and Khatami, chanted Iran’s pro-Mullah politicians, showing no willingness to listen to Iran’s fledgling protest movement.  Protesters led by Mousavi watched their demonstrations beaten down in 2009.

              President Barack Obama walked a dangerous line in Egypt, respecting a long-time ally, while, at the same time, supporting Egypt’s pro-Democracy protest movement.  “It’s ironic that the Iranian regime is pretending to celebrate what happened in Egypt,” said Obama at a White House press conference.  “They acted in direct contrast to what happened in Egypt,” throwing his support to Iranian demonstrators.  Like the Chinese communists, the current Iranian regime has no problems with methodically arresting and liquidating demonstrators.  “The judiciary will quickly and resolutely deal with major elements and those who violated public order and peace,” state prosecutor Gholem Hossein Mohseri Ejehi told the official IRNA news agency.  Since Ahmandinejad’s fake reelection, the U.S. could do more than sit back and watch pro-Democracy demonstrators suppressed and massacred.

            Khamenei and Ahmadinejad learned early on what it takes to break a literate population and hold on to power:  Brutal force.  Unlike Mubarak, it’s the Mullah’s willingness to violate the most basic human rights and commit mass murder that keeps them in power.  Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Iranian protesters “deserve to have the same rights that they saw being played out in Egypt and are part of their own birthright,” something unknown to the Persian population.  Despite the regime change to Islamic rule in 1979, Iran’s secret police, started under the Shah Mohammed Rezi Pahlavi, remains in tact.  It doesn’t take much for Iranian officials to suppress dissent.  For over 30 years, Iranians have grown accustomed to the brutal repression and crackdown on human rights, leaving little resistance to the regime’s violent persecution of civil and human rights.

            Protests on Tehran’s streets won’t escalate into the kind of revolution seen in Cairo.  Branded as traitors by the Iranian government, pro-reform activists are subjected to persecution, harassment, mass arrests, kangaroo courts and to relentless prosecution.  Regime critics like Mohammad Khatami and Mir-Hossain Mousavi are routinely placed under house-arrest and prevented from challenging the government.  IRNA’s State-Run News Agency blamed the U.S., Britain and Israel for stoking unrest in the Persian nation.  While the need for change has never been greater in Tehran, reform activists like Mousavi, Khatami and Hashemi Rafsanjani all know that today’s Mullah-driven regime won’t hesitate to wipeout dissent with violence.  Now matter what the peoples’ wishes, street demonstrations in Tehran, like those in Beijing, result in harassment, persecution and death.

John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He's editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.

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