Michael Ledeen, in National Review

Michael Ledeen, in National Review Online, reports on a new public opinion poll in Iran. The poll was conducted in the city of Isfahan, a key center of support for the revolution in 1979, and (as a matter of pure coincidence) the birthplace of my wife. According to Ledeen, 85 percent of the respondents said they regret that the revolution took place. Those who conducted the poll and reported its results have been imprisoned, again according to Ledeen. Ledeen also reports that armed battles between anti-regime demonstrators and pro-regime security forces have recently occurred in several Iranian cities. Meanwhile, leaders of the regime are busy arming Hezbollah, al Qaeda, Islamic Jihad, and Hamas with, among weapons, “new missiles of North Korean design with chemical-laden warheads”. And, says Ladeen, these same leaders are “preparing to use the outbreak of fighting in Iraq as an excuse for a new, more-terrible represssion of the long-suffering Iranian people.” In the past, if I recall correctly, Ladeen has predicted that the Iranian regime will fall once we topple Saddam. I don’t read this article as necessarily retracting that prediction but, at a minimum, Ladeen now seems convinced that the price of overthrowing the regime in Iran is likely to be quite high.