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The Unloved Iranian Revolution

(National Review) Reuel Marc Gerecht and Ray Takeyh - In February Iran's revolution turned 46. Today, the government is drowning in corruption. The system is riddled with nepotism, where family members of influential mullahs get lucrative state contracts, pay no taxes, and adhere to no regulations. The Revolutionary Guards have taken control of key industries such as telecommunications, construction, and banking, at a time when 30% of Iranians live below the poverty line. Clerical leaders routinely call on the masses to sacrifice and endure hardship for the sake of the regime. No Middle Eastern nation has killed more Americans than Iran. The Marine and embassy bombings of 1983, the attack on a U.S. base in Saudi Arabia in 1996, and the relentless assault on American troops in Iraq and Afghanistan have killed and wounded thousands. In the early decades of this century, Iran created the so-called axis of resistance, a concatenation of Shia militias and Arab militants that did Iran's bidding. Then came Oct. 7 and the great undoing. Iran's imperial strategy succeeded only because there was little pushback. Successive American administrations did not want to tangle with Tehran. But then Jerusalem flipped the script. It rejected Washington's calls for restraint as it destroyed Hamas and decapitated Hizbullah, which presaged the collapse of the Syrian regime. In its own scrimmage with Iran, Israel demonstrated its military prowess by easily penetrating the Islamic Republic's air defenses. The Islamic Republic has been humbled in the region by Jews. Its citizenry now routinely mocks the theocracy. Nuclear weapons may not save the Islamic Republic, since the rot is too deep and popular disaffection too widespread. But the bomb may be the last thing Khamenei can do to sustain his government. Reuel Marc Gerecht, a former Iranian-targets officer in the CIA, is a resident scholar at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. Ray Takeyh is a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.
2025-03-27 00:00:00
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