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The Decline (and Fall?) of the "Fourth Persian Empire"
(Washington Institute for Near East Policy) Hassan Mneimneh - The "Fourth Persian Empire" is in decline through the weight of its own unsustainability. The U.S. measures taken against it have merely accelerated the rate of erosion. Now that an increasing scarcity of resources, a heightened avidity of the kleptocratic class, and a self-ignited public awareness have converged to create a storm of protest, it is hard to imagine how this bankrupt model of external domination can prevail in the long term. In Lebanon, Iraq and Iran, there is an asymmetrical confrontation between unarmed protestors driven by concrete interests and universal values, and armed proxies of an ideological regime driven by illusions of supremacy. The world - which has accommodated, accepted, or condoned the imperial impulses of Iran's ideological elite - ought to consider the blood of the protestors the red line in the face of violence by Iran and its proxies. The writer is a contributing editor with the Washington Institute's Fikra Forum and a principal at Middle East Alternatives in Washington.