[Marxism] A velvet revolution in Iran?

[Jacob Levich]

Thanks for this link. I think Milne correctly identifies the stakes:

"[T]he neutralisation of Iran as an independent regional power would be a 
huge prize for the US – defanging recalcitrants from Baghdad to Beirut – and 
a route out of the strategic impasse created by the invasion of Iraq."

I would add that, even if the current regime retains control, Iran stands to 
lose a great deal of the regional and international prestige it has gained 
since the start of the Iraq War. I suppose that alone would justify the $400 
million+ that the US has spent on covert operations to destabilize the 
Iranian government.

It is of course possible that an insurrection engineered by the US might 
spin out of control and turn into a popular uprising, but I am not yet 
convinced that that is occurring.

Seumas Milne, by the way, wrote "The Enemy Within," a first-rate book on the 
coal miners' strike of 1984-85 in the UK. That book was the inspiration for 
one of the finest political novels I've ever read, David Peace's _GB84_.

jake



>
> Finally, may I suggest an excellent piece on the crisis in Iran by 
> Guardian
> columnist, Seumas Milne.
>
> _http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/jun/18/iran-elections-us-forei
> gn-policy_
> (http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/jun/18/iran-elections-us-foreign-policy)
>
>