Iranian protestors: "death to Khamenei" — VOICES for REASONVOICES for REASON

The clerics in Iran have led crowds in chants of “death to America” for 30-plus years, but now protesters in Iran are reportedly shouting “death to Khamenei.” Bear in mind that the cleric Ayatollah Khamenei is the supreme leader in a regime predicated on the supremacy of religious law. Not only have the protesters dared to defy the government, to risk death while resisting the security forces sent to disperse them; they’re (again) challenging the legitimacy of the Iranian theocracy.

Could 2010 be for Iran what 1989 was for the USSR?

Americans (and all Westerners) have reason to encourage the implosion of the Islamist regime in Tehran, because it is a leading patron of jihadist terror groups and seeks to become nuclear-capable. If Iranians can bring down the clerical regime from within, that would be a good thing. That’s true, even though whatever comes after the theocracy is unlikely to be particularly friendly; but it is also unlikely that whatever comes after would be anywhere near as belligerent. Could the internal protests in Iran be enough to topple the regime? Perhaps. But one factor that could help tremendously is if the U.S. and other nations grant their moral support to the protesters and unequivocally denounce the Iranian regime as illegitimate. That could galvanize the protesters.

Tragically Obama’s administration appears to be squandering this important opportunity — again. The White House has issued a pro-forma statement against the regime’s “unjust suppression” of the protesters. A spokesman for the National Security Council said, “Hope and history are on the side of those who peacefully seek their universal rights, and so is the United States.”

Really? That’s the best our government can do?

flickr/Hamed Saber