Recommended Reading
The Road to Tartary edition….
Myself, and me alone,
My bed should be of ivory,
Of beaten gold my throne;
And in my court should peacocks flaunt,
And in my forests tigers haunt,
And in my pools great fishes slant
Their fins athwart the sun.
– Walter de la Mare
Top Billing! Michael J. Totten – Our Man Inside Iran’s Revolutionary Guards
I have a weakness, acquired from my days of studying the Soviets, for the intriguing and often tormented characters who become double-agents and defectors, as well as for the morally uncompromising, superhumanly heroic, dissidents who elect to confront tyrannical power head-on. We have had very few windows in the last thirty years into the opaque world of the of the Pasdaran-clique that now runs Iran. Michael Totten interviews one of them:
MJT: I’m a bit surprised that over the past year, since uprising after the fake election, that more people haven’t been killed during street demonstrations. I expected thousands to be killed like in China in 1989. If Khamenei were to order something like that, would the Revolutionary Guards carry it out?
Reza Kahlili: That is a very good question.
What happened in Iran totally destroyed the legitimacy they claimed to have, that they represent God and protect the oppressed. So if Khamenei wanted to do what he has seen other dictators do by killing thousands, I am sure it would affect the Revolutionary Guards’ mentality and spirit. They might not participate. That’s a very good question.
They don’t use the Revolutionary Guards to beat people or knife them or spy on them. They have the Basij and the special forces and the plainclothes police for the dirty jobs. The regular forces couldn’t sustain such an act. It would deeply affect them.
MJT: So what do you think they would do if they were given those orders? Would they just refuse to comply, or would they move against the government?
Reza Kahlili: They won’t move against the government. They just wouldn’t carry it out. They wouldn’t show up. Or if they did show up, they wouldn’t do what would be expected of them. It would create doubt in the hearts of the loyal forces who would fight a foreign force to the last drop of blood.
MJT: If you’re right about that, the government is eventually going to lose
Registan.net has excellent analysis of and speculation about events in Kyrgyzstan:
Protests, Clashes, and Arrests in Kyrgyzstan, Rushing for Inaccuracy in Bishkek, Let the Revolution Be Archived, Side elements of Upheaval, The More Things Change…, What We Talk about When We Talk about Revolution, Why Kyrgyzstan’s Social Media Matters, A New Republic?
Transitions Online ( Bullough) – Why Are Chechens So Angry?
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