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Jewish World Review Jan. 7, 2003 / 4 Shevat, 5763
Michael Ledeen
The Shape of Things to Come: The terror masters are now waiting for us
He
spent a lot of time on the very hot topic of public-opinion polls in Iran.
Several unfortunate souls are being tortured in Iranian prisons for the
crime of asking the Iranian people what they think about their leaders,
and then publishing the extremely negative results. Janati, in language
that would have made Stalin blush, defines those involved in the process
whether answering pollsters' questions or announcing the results
publicly as enemy agents.
His rage was kindled
by a recent poll in Isfahan long the most politically active city
in the country, the center of support for Khomeini during the revolution
of 1979, and today the city that supports the regime's most-effective
clerical opponents, the Ayatollahs Montazeri and Taheri in which
the people were asked two very important questions about recent Iranian
history. The first was why the revolution had succeeded. The second was
whether they felt the sacrifices of the Iranian people in the long war
against Iraq were justified. The answers to the
first question were shocking (so shocking, in fact, that I doubt the figures
are accurate): 70 percent said that the British and the Americans wanted
to create turmoil in the country for pursuing their own interests and
25 percent said that the Shah was ineffective and did not put up an effective
resistance, and thus his regime fell. No one said anything about Khomeini's
efforts. The answers to the
second question do you think our sacrifices were justified?
were equally devastating. In Janati's own words, "85 percent said
we deplore what we did and we wish we would not have sent our children
and we regret that we participated...in these efforts. The same percentage
have also said that we deeply regret that a revolution took place in Iran
and they say why we should have a revolution?!" Then Janati accused
the Ministry of Information of failing to carry out its responsibilities.
Why are not such people being dealt with harshly? Why are they left free
to spread their subversive ideas and support our enemies? These are the words
of a regime that knows its days are numbered. Whatever the real numbers
(surely there was at least one poor soul in Isfahan who thought Khomeini
had something to do with the downfall of the shah), the overwhelming majority
of the Iranian people have turned thumbs down on their leaders, and they
are not the least bit afraid to say so. Indeed, with every passing week,
violent action against the regime intensifies. Over the past few days
there have been armed battles in several cities, most notably in the Ahvaz
region, where an oil pumping station was burned to the ground by an enraged
mob, and pictures of Supreme Leader Khamenei, former President Rafsanjani,
and the hapless current President Khatami were burned in effigy. In the
oil region of Khuzestan, there have been violent clashes between demonstrators
and security forces, and oil workers are now joining the demonstrations.
In coming days there will be demonstrations by teachers and women
celebrating the anniversary of the happy day when women were freed of
the obligation of wearing the hijab decades ago. Meanwhile, as President
Bush prepares us for the coming battles, the leaders of the regime are
doing the same, providing Hezbollah and its allies in al Qaeda, Islamic
Jihad, and Hamas with better weapons including new missiles of
North Korean design with chemical-laden warheads and coordinating
stratagems with Baghdad and Damascus. As I have warned in the past, we
had better be prepared for a regional war, not just a limited action in
Iraq alone. Had we acted quickly
after the fall of the Taliban, we could have had the luxury of moving
deliberately against Iraq without having to worry about effective assaults
organized by Syria and Iran, but those days are long gone. The terror
masters are now waiting for us, and the brutal language of the Ayatollah
Janati suggests that they are simultaneously preparing to use the outbreak
of fighting in Iraq as an excuse for a new, more-terrible repression of
the long-suffering Iranian people. Why else would you
define truthful answers to simple questions as treason? And why else would
you accuse an entire city of working for the enemy?
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