NYT:
Iran recently observed the 40th anniversary of the Islamic Revolution, but few Iranians beyond the regime’s elites celebrated it. The reason for this lack of enthusiasm among ordinary Iranians is no mystery. By any reasonable measure, the revolution has failed to deliver the just and prosperous society that Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and other revolutionary leaders promised the Iranian people in 1979.
These days, Iran’s ruling theocracy is best known for oppression, corruption and mismanagement at home, and ghastly sectarian warfare abroad. Through its Shiite militias, the clerical regime has fueled violence and death in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen, and well beyond. Iran’s support for Hezbollah and Hamas has enabled deadly cross-border attacks into Israel.
This proxy network has allowed Iran to project power well beyond its borders. But a combination of the regime’s own financial mismanagement and strong American sanctions is clearly straining Iran’s allies. On Monday, in an effort to further raise the pressures on Iran's regime from outside, we designated its Revolutionary Guards Corps a terrorist organization.
Within Iran’s own borders, the ’79 revolution is largely a spent force. Mosque attendance has collapsed, with the Revolutionary Guards reporting that even during holy days the faithful stay away. Those seeking to become clerics are few in number, an astonishing condemnation by the religious working class, who traditionally have supplied most of the clerical students and been the backbone of the regime. The country’s brain drain and capital flight is constant.
Today, the revolution belongs primarily to the regime’s hypocritical elite. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s Setad hedge fund, worth tens of billions of dollars, was supposed to be a charity, but it now seizes property from Iranians to sustain the regime. The Revolutionary Guards have become a state within a state, developing a stranglehold on many parts of the economy. Iran’s foreign minister speaks to the world on his Twitter account while his regime outlaws Twitter.
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Mr. Hook, we all would love to share your rosy vision of the future for Iran, and the 'return' of the glory days you paint, but coming from the Trump adminstration its all very disengenuous, and lacks credibility. Forced to choose, between two bad choices, Iranians would never pick the instability and insecurity of Iraq, or Afghanistan, Syria, Yemen, Libya ... you name anywhere the U.S. has bombed or touched over the past 50 years over the patent repression and mismanagement of the Mullahs. Quite simply put, U.S. can not and will not add value to any nation let alone Iran - and we all appreciate deep U.S. and its allies funding for Iranian splinter groups like the Kurds, Baloochies, Azeris etc. as well as the MEK. We absolutely know that there is no love for Iranians in the U.S. by this adminstration or any future one. No, Iran is ONLY for Iranians to fix. So shut the f*** up. We do not need or appreciate U.S. or its allies help in anyway. So again, can you please shut the f*** up, take Iran and Iranians off your plate, find another place to pick on to justify your war mongery and machinery. You will replace this regime and the revolutionary guards with another corrupt batch of nuts who will also operate a state within a state and put a stranglehold on Iran's economy - and repress Iranians. No one has forgotten who put the Mullahs in power to begin with. Find something else to do. Please leave Iran - and by the way, the whole region alone. Please leave us in peace so we can sort our own mess out by ourselves. And tell your allies - especially the Brits, Israeli, Saudis etc to do the same. Iran has not invaded anyone in over 150 years -- maybe longer. Iran, by the way, is a shadow of its former self (because it has been invaded over the past 200+ years). Iranians are romantics, poets, musicians, lovers ... not fighters. Iran is no threat to anyone. As bad as the mullahs are, Iran's military posture is inherently defensive. You know that. So please shut the f*** up. Ge the f*** out. Find something else to do, and someone else to pick on.