And Andrew Sullivan, continuing to outdo himself covering action on the ground, in the U.S. foreign policy intellectual sphere (if that's how one can refer to some die-hard Neocons) and questions of what's happening on the inside. Like whether the powers-that-be are already testing out scapegoating Ahmadinejad by using his current trip to Moscow against him. Seems that Russian influence is a bugaboo in Iran, not entirely dissimilar to how American influence is viewed -- traitorous.
Much hinges on the highly influential cleric class, if the Revolutionary Guard doesn't arrest all the more democracy-minded ones first. But the streets have a life of their own, with information about the next rally passed person-to-person at each mass demonstration, and potentially the biggest one of all coming up on Thursday -- the first rally of mourning.
Moussavi called it to honor those killed this past week in the struggle, and everyone is being asked to wear mourning clothes. It will be a sea of black and, I'm expecting, a sea of silence as has been typical so far, the most scathing indictment of the regime of all. Silence not only reinforces the decency of the protesters, it makes any provocation by the fascist forces stand out, hence minimizing the chance of them happening. You can't heat to violence if you aren't raising your voice.
This is a brilliant move because this is exactly how the Islamic Revolution was won back in 1979, per Reza Aslan on Rachel Maddow:Good. Because, in the name of all that's decent, a regime that can do this must fall:
What's really fascinating about what's happening right now in 2009 is that it looks a lot like what was happening in 1979. And there's a very simple reason for that. The same people are in charge -- I mean, Mousavi, Rafsanjani, Khatami, Medhi Karroubi, the other reformist candidate -- these were all the original revolutionaries who brought down the Shah to begin with, so they know how to do this right.And so what you're going to see tomorrow is something that was pulled exactly out of the playbook of 1979, which is that you have these massive mourning rallies, where you mourn the deaths of those who were martyred in the cause of freedom. And these things tend to get a little bit out of control, they often result in even more violence by the security forces and even more deaths, which then requires another mourning rally which is even larger, which then requires more violence from the government, and this just becomes an ongoing snowball that can't be stopped.
That's how the Shah was removed from power, was these mourning ceremonies. And so Mousavi very smartly calling for an official -- not a rally -- but an official day of mourning tomorrow. I think we're going to see crowds that we haven't even begun to see yet, and then follow that, on Friday, which is sort of the Muslim sabbath, the day of prayer, which is a traditionally a day of gathering anyway. This is just beginning, Rachel, this is just the beginning.
One medical student said he and his roommate blocked their door with furniture and hid in the closet when they heard the militia's motorcycles approaching. He heard the militia breaking down doors, and then screams of anguish as students were dragged from their beds and beaten violently.
When he came out after the militia had left, friends and classmates lay unconscious in dorm rooms and hallways, many with chest wounds from being stabbed or bloody faces from blows to their heads, he said. The staff of the hospital where the wounded students were taken, Hazrat Rasoul Hospital, was so shocked that they went on strike for two hours, standing silently outside the gate in their white medical uniforms.
You know what happens to tinpot dictators when the people they've been oppressing get their hands on them.
Enjoy history in the making:
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