Those thousands of Iranians who poured out on the streets of Tehran were supposed to be calling for the toppling of the autocratic Islamist regime.
That, hopefully, was the expectation of the Trump administration.
Once the bombing to level Iran began, and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed, along with his leadership team, the long-oppressed people were supposed to rise, take over the place and form a new government.
It has not worked out that way, at least not yet.
The only people who showed up were thousands of chanting “Death to America” Iranians who filled Tehran’s Enqelab Square to support the appointment of Khamenei’s son Mojtaba Khamenei, 56, as Iran’s new dictator.
His appointment, brought about by the hardline leaders of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), was an indication that Iran is still some time away from capitulating to President Donald Trump’s demand for an unconditional surrender.
It could be a sign that there are few people left in Iran to take to the streets to demonstrate against the government, in that Khamenei ordered the massacre of some 36,500 anti-government protestors in January. Or perhaps the dissidents simply do not want to get butchered like the others.
Or, as some have suggested, the remaining protestors and the average Iranian citizens have been urged to remain at home to avoid danger from falling bombs.
If so, that advice was not followed by the pro-Khamenei fanatics who turned out thousands of Iranians to support their new leader, who could be taken out like his father was.
Still, his appointment was both an act of defiance toward Trump as well as an indication that the repression of the Iranian people will continue.
Mojtaba, who has close ties to the Revolutionary Guard, played an important role in the killing of thousands of Iranians in the recent protests.
While the U.S and the Israelis got the regime change that they hoped for early in the bombing campaign when the elder Khamenei and his leadership team were killed, there are few signs that their replacements will throw in the towel.
Rather, the opposite appears to be the case.
While taking a beating from the U.S. and Israel from the bombing destruction of its navy, its ballistic missile and drone strike capability, its remaining nuclear facilities, as well as its infrastructure, they seem to be still in the fight.
The quick victory that Trump predicted may take time. The religious fanatic fighters of the IRGC are like the brainwashed Japanese soldiers on Iwo Jima and Okinawa who, during WWII, fought to their death rather than surrender.
It may sound strange, but there are some who think the Iranians have Trump boxed in by prolonging the war as long as possible to force Trump to use ground troops — Israeli or American, or both — to secure a victory. Trump has said that ground troops would not be necessary,
Veteran political observers can recall President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964 saying the same thing about sending U.S. troops to fight in Vietnam. How did that turn out?
But Trump is not Johnson, and Iran is not Vietnam. And sending in ground troops would, of course, be unacceptable to most Americans and would severely hurt the Republicans in the upcoming midterm Congressional elections and even the 2028 presidential election.
But Trump knows all of this, which is why he will most likely win without the infantry. In doing so, he will save Israel and the rest of us from nuclear annihilation.
Trump is riding high. His foreign policy accomplishments have been stunning.
It will be good for him, the Iranian people, and the world when he wins this one.
Veteran political reporter Peter Lucas can be reached at: peter.lucas@bostonherald.com