Fighting Iran’s undivided and indivisible regime

In regards to Iran, for forty years, Western policymakers have been lying to themselves about the nature of the Iranian regime and basing their Iran policies on the lies they tell themselves. The main lie has been that there is an ongoing, existential struggle for power and control within the ranks of the regime’s leadership.

On the one hand, the fantasy goes, you have the “hardliners.” They are the ones behind all the terrorism. They are the ones working to develop nuclear weapons and the warheads to deliver them. They are the ones who call out “Death to America, Death to Israel.”

Facing them are the “moderates.” If the moderates seize the reins, the Iranians will eschew terror. They will walk away from their nuclear program. And the aspiration for an Islamic global empire will become no more than a children’s fairytale…

On Monday, Reuters published a report about how the regime brutally repressed the countrywide protests last month that put paid this delusional notion

And they were. According to Reuters’ sources, within two weeks, 1,500 demonstrators, including 400 women and at least 17 teenagers were killed by regime forces.

In other words, there is no epic struggle between hardliners and moderates in Iran. The leader of the “moderates,” Rouhani is just as responsible for the brutal repression of the protesters as supposed “hardliners.” They were all at the meeting. They all agreed that the protests had to be brutally crushed.