That same day, in another corner of Tehran, there was a demonstration in support of the shah and the Constitution. Yet the world\u2019s media \u2013 heavily influenced by leftist thinking \u2013 was far more inclined to turn Khomeini into an idol.<\/p>\n
That same day, clashes broke out between Air Force technicians and the shah\u2019s Imperial Guard. From a military training center, Khomeini\u2019s supporters opened fire. Meanwhile, Khomeini was staying at a school only four or five miles from that military facility, fomenting unrest.<\/p>\n
Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini (L) who became Iran’s first Supreme Leader after the Islamic Revolution and Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, who offered the Shah of Iran to dispose of the cleric (credit: Canva\/GABRIEL DUVAL\/AFP via Getty Images\/Scott Peterson\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n
Suddenly, weapons fell into the hands of civilians. People then attacked police stations and military barracks, and Khomeini rode the wave, issuing a decree of Islamic jihad \u2013 Islamic terrorism. Suddenly, Islamist and Marxist terrorists hiding behind Khomeini\u2019s clerical robe plunged the capital into chaos.<\/p>\n
The following day, the navy joined the air force, and on February 11, the military declared neutrality \u2013 which, in practice, amounted to a betrayal of the shah.<\/p>\n
These days, the ruling establishment in Iran is again paralyzed. They say that former supreme leader Ali Khamenei\u2019s crazy son, Mojtaba, is still alive, but whether he is dead or alive is of no importance to Iranian society. The regime does not fear the United States or Israel. Its nightmare is a nationwide uprising by the Iranian people against the current ruling establishment.<\/p>\n
In reality, however, the regime has been brought to its knees. Mojtaba certainly has not become Gandhi, though for now the authorities have made urban metro systems free, so that society will not rise over higher gasoline prices \u2013 a society that is waiting for a spark.<\/p>\n
That spark has nothing to do with the United States or Israel. The Iranian people are not asleep; this is an awake and intelligent society.<\/p>\n
The weakness of the current ruling establishment is the possibility that a society living under the pressure of dictatorship could gain access to weapons. That historical precedent is the regime\u2019s nightmare.<\/p>\n
If it happens, Iran could enter a civil war, because the religious forces and supporters of the regime would transform themselves into underground terrorist cells operating out of mosques, unwilling to surrender power peacefully.<\/p>\n
But this will undoubtedly happen. What we are witnessing now is the calm before the storm. Severe poverty, public discontent, and shortages are tightening their grip around Iran\u2019s throat.<\/p>\n
The first stage is the transition away from the sinister mafia of the Shi\u2019ite mullahs, who are the root of the promotion of ignorance and superstition in Iran. Naturally, no society reaches prosperity, freedom, or democracy through the Shi\u2019ite mullah. Nor will the Iranian people climb down into a well on a rope held by people in Washington such as US Vice President JD Vance<\/a>, who place their hopes in endless, exhausting negotiations.<\/p>\n Iranians know the nature and character of the Shi\u2019ite mullah. Yet someone like Vance speaks as though, during the past 48 years, he has neither read a newspaper nor listened to the radio. But his ear is open to the Islamic Republic\u2019s notorious lobby in Washington.<\/p>\n Naturally, along this difficult and winding road, if Israel and the United States help the Iranian people achieve freedom, so much the better, and they deserve gratitude. But the determining variables in this equation will not be the United States and Israel.<\/p>\n Some of those same media outlets associated with the political Left do not want to examine the most basic question: Who fired first? The elder Khamenei, who was worse than Genghis Khan, ordered the killing of people. Members of this criminal faction \u2013 such as Ahmad Vahidi, commander-in-chief of the IRGC; Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, and others \u2013 were accomplices to this crime. Today, they surround themselves with knife-wielding thugs, street toughs, and hooligans simply to stay alive. No one even knows where they sleep at night.<\/p>\n A strange kind of fragmentation and disintegration has emerged within Iran\u2019s ruling establishment. The Iranian regime is deeply confused and no longer has the power to control an enraged society.<\/p>\n History is repeating itself. The Seleucids took Iran, as did the Mongols and the Seljuks. Yet each time, Iranians rebuilt the foundations of their civilization, reclaimed their sovereignty, and restored the institution of monarchy.<\/p>\n At the foundation of Iranian thought lies the philosophy of Zoroaster. In Iranian civilization and history, the shah means the guardian of the law, the representative of the law, and the symbol of law, truth, and righteousness. This is fundamentally different from the sultan \u2013 the Islamic dictator. The history of Iran is a living history. Iranians have lost sovereignty many times, only to reclaim it again.<\/p>\n Reading the mullah’s playbook<\/p>\n