Vasspaan

See what I mean

Chaharshanbeh Suri has come and gone, and nada, nothing! Folks, we either take on this regime head on and go for its cajones/balls by any means necessary, or Iran is finished if war breaks out! Green ribbons and peace signs ain't gonna cut the mustard against these monsters. Simple as that...

Ya NUR

I agree with MM

Going out there half cocked with arms will just get people killed. Remember Siahkal? In addition it will give the IRR an excuse to go on a rampage. They will label them terrorist;  and hang every single one. Not a wise move.

The only time armed struggle make sense is if it has a good chance for success. It would need to have significant support in the military or some other support. These youth are the best. Their lives are way too important to waste.

The 4 points MM mentions on the other hand are very practical. The goal is results not getting "martyred". 

My 2 cents

Before you take up armed struggle

Unless otherwise fed by coordinated arms and personnel, the armed struggle by sporadic supporters of the opposition amounts to basically suicide missions with no tangible results.  There are several actions that will sure put chills on the skins of IRI leadership / supporters and make them think about alternative living arrangements. 

1. Full implementation of Prof. Sharp's 198 tactics for civil disobedience

Iran protesters: the Harvard professor is behind their tactics.   “Iran singled out Harvard professor Gene Sharp as a key inspiration for protesters' 'velvet coup.' Sharp's manual on nonviolent protest shaped opposition movements in Czechoslovakia and inspired activists in Burma.”  This article, From Dictatorship to Democracy, lists 198 non-violent tactics that can be used if the demonstrators are not armed.  From Dictatorship to Democracy is available free in many languages, including English and Farsi from Albert Einstein Institute at Harvard University.

2. Cut off the support of IRI to their foreign agents Hamas, Hezbollah and Ghods by identification of the sources and freezing the assets.  This category needs the cooperation of the international community.

3. CUT off the money supply within Iran by oil workers strikes/disruptions.  Strikes in general are included in #1, but the shut-down of the oil industry is so important, it deserves its own category.

4. Convince the REAL armed forces of Iran to stand with the people, against  IRI.  As the only other faction of the Iranian society with arms, the armed forces of Iran are the last hope before desperation moves by ordinary citizens.  This category needs a leadership that is well respected by most factions of the opposition as well as the Iranian society.

Unofrtunately

I am afraid that an armed Iranian uprising will end up being the only method by which this menace will be removed from Iran.  It's not that the Iranian people want this, by it's what the IRI is forcing them into.  This regime is not reformable.  It has become a military dictatorship, and military dictatorships do not "change" or wither away y people holding up peace signs and silently demonstrating.  

how many

letters have been written to the esteemed leader/s in the past 30 years, last one being by Karrubi's wife re her son's arrests or how many poems or pleads for human rights?? These murderers won't go away easily,  Remember their life depends on it! We can no longer tie green ribbons round our fingers like in Imamzadehs. Economic sanctions, whatever they may be, will only hurt ordinary people as those in power hold all economic power. Someone says, only allow medicine and food! Guess where that medicine and food will go? to hizbollahis and their thugs. No one here remembers when the US slapped an embargo, Khomeini said we can live without modern conveniences, wash your dishes with dirt and sand, etc. Surgical strikes by the likes of US and Israel won't work as we know how inept the americans are in conducting wars, and will lead to innocent blood shed.(have a look @ Iraq and Afghanistan). Those who lived and suffered under IRI, knew from early on that only violence/armed uprising will uproot these murderers. Therefore; selective or surgical assassination of key funtionaries and more importantly their foot soldiers, ie the basij and pasdaran(when not on duty) will create VAHSHAT amongst them. Without their little foot soldiers, they will not be able to withstand even small scale demonstrations. However, having said that, it might also backfire, like in the early 80's where the regime's thugs, caught countless number of teens and young intellegensia and sent them to regime's hell holes and firing squads. Armed resistance is the only way forward....if we continue with slogans, they will rightly call people soosool va bache naneh!

To bring down IRR

you have to close down source of money. Two things will help speeding up this process enormousley.

1) Freezing assetts of mualhs, aghazaehs, IRG and so on. All the money they have stolen and continue to steal ends up in banks out side of Iran. Freeze it and it will shock the hell out of them. No money means no chance for them to scape the country with wealth in hand. no money to buy guns and goons. with out source of income their beloved friends from E.U,  china, russia  to Gaza and others will drop them as fast you can blink. Their friendship of IRR is not free!

2) A  Blockade of persian gulf by U.S navy. Only food+ medicene should be allowed to get there..Again no il export means no money, no guns, no gas for IRR thugs to run around the city. A complete chaos in oil system will cause complete paralysis and collaps of IRR.

Armed struggle is lenghty, requires commited people and charesmatic leadership. there is allso a great possibility of civil war which may tear the country apart like former of soviet Union and Youguslavia.

maziar58

The International Journal of Middle East Studies (IJMES) - which I assume is the journal you are referring to - is a venue for academic scholarship, with the contributors having multiple points of view, and not a newspaper periodical or what have you with any editorial ideological slant. Most of the contributors are also pretty leftwing in their personal points of view and so are by definition against the British establishment's great game in the region as well as against Zionism. I know Juan Cole who used to run the journal is. He was also targetted by the Neo-Cons as well as a US based pro-Zionist university campus organization in a smear campaign a few years ago. These guys at IJMES do not like the Zionist Likkudniks, the British imperial warmongers, the oil companies or the Neo-Cons. Rest assured.

Yes, mass strikes, work-stoppages, mass civil disobedience, campaigns and rallies are all good things. But correct me if I am wrong, wasn't that all supposed to have happened last Thursday? This regime has brutalized this people because this regime has no compunction in unleashing and committing the worst sort of violence against its people and doing whatever it takes to instill fear into the general population.

The bottom line practical facts of the matter are that so-long as this regime is the only party weilding the guns, the Green movement is not going to go anywhere. If the Green movement transformed itself into a full mass revolutionary organization and applied all the revolutionary strategies - like what happened last time - we can take this regime out in a short time!

When you are dealing with an entity as brutal as this IRI, Mao's famous dictum that "power emerges from the barrell of a gun" is absolutely spot-on! So let us take our collective power back from these Zahhak/Dajjal monsters with the barrells of guns pointed in their general direction...

WAR MONGERS

nur i azal that m.e. journal is another british craps that want to(hopes for) switching the war zone from lebanon to another place i.e Iran so may be they can sign a peace treaty in Israel without any change with original Israeli demands.

We do not need CIVIL WAR,If 31000,000 Iranians go on strike starting in N.I.O.C and stop the friday prayer that might help better than taking arms against brutal rapist regime of Iran.   Maziar

If you reject an idea,

If you reject an idea, propose your own

Since you asked, I give you mine. We should organize ourself in a single unified organization with very defined and limited agenda. I called it Sazman-e Mardomi. It has for goal to restore the only legitimate constitution of Iran, primary focused on pushing forward a peaceful process through a referendum for choosing between IRI constitution (now I should say in any version!) and monarchic constitution of Iran. Once the latter is restored by the will of people, the interim government will have the duty to prepare the free and stable environment for electing a constituent assembly to decide on the future Iranian system.

As long as you don't commit yourself to anything, you can only ask for someone to offer you an army to lead and make a fool of yourself!

//iranian.com/main/blog/benross-0

If you reject an idea, propose your own

I am not saying I am in for an armed conflict in Iran but I don't see those who are rejecting it directly put forward any alternatives. If you listen to them, we should not have armed struggle or any general or targeted sanctions. So, could those of you, who believe IRI must go down, provide some guidelines or ideas on how you want this to happen? Due to the presence of the regime, one can't really talk about organizing mass strikes or large demonstrations every day. So please present a doable action plan.

It is easy to criticize others and stay quiet. Take courage and speak up!

Mooshie

To get rid of the Islamic Republic, you only need to kill

3 to 5 million total! Let's be practical here, armed-struggle is a lengthy, costly, and cumbersome process that requires the trust and unity amongst the oppositions(s). Most importantly it requires an effective leadership and cooperative followers. Can you name one Iranian leader that Iranian oppositions wouild follow? Furthermore, the mullahs can blend in. 

That's why you need a surprise military strike on the Islamic Republic with possible invasion of the country if necessary. This is very similar to the situation when you have a rotten tooth which can not be filled or root-canalled then it must be pulled and thrown out into the trash.

Open up wide please!

Sargord Pirouz

Pot, meet kettle!

You supporters of the Islamic republic, like apologists of all totalitarian systems in history, are comedic hypocrites of mind boggling dimensions since your mentality is the same warped criminal mentality of the masters you serve. Your masters and the illegitimate, un-Islamic, antichrist regime (hokumat-i-dajjali) they represent are one and all terrorists to the last man. In fact there are still outstanding warrants for their arrest in several European states for their involvement in a host of murders and political assassinations in the '80s and '90s. That said, your first seven questions are a matter of secrecy, but I will answer your final one:

-How are you planning to overcome the vastly superior force of the Ansar-ol Mahdi?

By bringing forth the true Imam Mahdi to lead the Ansar al-NUR ;-)

Damet garm, gitdoun ver.2.0

You have nailed it in 1, dear friend. This is something all these useless effete, Tehrangeles type liberals around here are in complete denial about. They think slogans and demonstrations alone can do this regime in. It can't. The proof is the past 8 and a half months. What other option has this military theocracy left the people of Iran other than armed resistance and struggle against its existence? They will not role over and they are not going without a bitter fight. So I say let's take the fight to them on the only terms they understand and finish the business: Armed resistance!

Armed Resistance is the language Regime Understands

I think eventually, 10 or 15yrs from now, the Green Movement will take an armed resistance posture. I dont think it will even be called a Green Movement anymore. It will be an armed freedom fighters INSIDE IRAN against the regime and it will be a full blown civil war in the streets of Tehran, Esfahan, Tabriz, Shiraz etc etc. But it didn't have to come to this. The regime last June denied the nation free-fair elections and will continue to do this so voting is pointless. And furthermore the regime has clamped down on demonstrations,  banned public assembly, and executed dissidents. I know it's ironic for me to talk of armed resistance especially with my icon picture but frustration/despair often leads to more radical desperate measures. So i would like to ask others ---What other path have they left for the nation other than armed resistance ???

Armed struggle you say?

Hi, Hi Sir! Let me get my camel and attack them surgically!

I don't think it will work

MKO and others haven't been able to topple the regime, so I don't think another armed group will fair any better.  But I don't know what the solution is.  This regime responds the same to peaceful protest as it has to violence.  

By the way, you can see moherab Pirouz' head steaming through his post.  He's so upset that he's oblivious to his own rhetorical questions and blatant hypocrisy.  

Armed stuggle no but surgical attacks yes

Armed struggle only kills Iranians themselves.  But surgical attacks led by US/Israel will traget regime's assets and the leadership's (terrorist I may add) bunkers. When especially sanctioned by the UN it will be legal, save millions, that otherwise the Islamic (ha! what a farce of a word) regime would perpetrate.  So the cleanest way to get these worms we call Mullahs is not by peaceful protest, is not a civil war and definitely not armed struggle, but surgical attacks.  The only way left to remove the IRI.  Let the world come in and wipe 200K or so basij and Pasdars and pave the way for an Iran free of leeches we call Islamists.

Armed Struggle is not the way..

Armed Struggle is not the way..

Sargord has some nerve to complain about terrorism

He supports a regime that has conducted endless terrorism against the Iranian people for years when they complain of lack of human rights, lack of a free press, rigged elections, econonomic incompetence, the IRCG economic monopoly and thieving mullahs like the Supreme Billionaire.  

Name one moral thing about this regime and its Supreme Leader (beating women into wearing hajibs or beating men with the wrong haircuts hardly counts).  This regime exists now solely and exclusively to enrich the few (hard line mullahs, top security officials) and screw everyone else. 

Why would any other Iranian love the Khamenei regime and the Islamic Republic, which is anything but Islamic or a Republic?  There is no religious reason to love it (the opposite in fact).

Claims of religious legitimacy or political legitimacy have become laughtable now.  That nonsense is justr a con game. This regime even raids mosques, beats up top ayatollahs with better credentials than Khamenenei, arrests human rights spokesmen and tortures their relatives to get confessions for phony show trials.  Where is the Islam and holiness in this?

As for violence, I only partly agree with the original post.  Most Iranians should stick to peaceful methods (demonstrations, graffiti, marking up currency) but the regime should have no monopoly on violence and work toward a prolonged general strike since they have no possibility EVER of a decend life under this criminal Zimbabwe/Burma-style regime.  Force the regime to continue spending millions of calling out security forces.   Make sure chaos continues forever until the people have all human rights and thugs who committed so many crimes are arrested and punished. 

Iranians who can't take it any longer, who have been tortured, beaten or imprisoned, or who have had relatives victimized understandably feel driven to violence and to act on their own.   What they should not do, for now, is attempt conventional battle with a regime that--for now--enjoys a monopoly there.  The key is asysmetrical warfare against the regime's thugs, being careful not to target innocent civilians (a categorty that doesn't include plainclothesmen.

Targets should be the persons, property and families of  hardline cleriocs, top security officials, IRCG and Basilj officers, interrogators and thuggish prison guards,  and any rand-and-file troopers or police who have been enthusiastic in beating and shooting the people, plainclothes thugs, etc.  The regime can't guard them all.  Let the non-violent gather information on such types--who they are, where they live, what kind of vehicles they drive.

A Molotov cocktail in the middle of the night would be a great treat for many of these killers and torturers.  Seal the doors of their homes shut first.   Give them what they give the  people.

Wow! a gun slinging sufi!!! (LMAO)

Azali, your meglomania is now reaching critical proportion. You are the proof why our great gnostic poets like Hafez hated the sufis so much - because they are no different from the Islamists and Jehadists. No can you copy and paste something in your defence. I need a laugh this weekend.

By the way, before you assume the leadership of the armed struggle, go to this blog - I am disappointed that you chickened out LOL.

//iranian.com/main/blog/arash-monzavi-kia...

"Fun" raising ;)) ;))

A fundraising will be held at a concert event, and training will be provided right there in the VIP private lounge, starting with  "how to make a cocktail martini" ;)) LOL

Advocating terrorism is a crime

So now terrorism is being advocated? In itself, such advocacy is recognized as a crime. It doesn't matter which country you are advocating it on or from, realize that this is an internationally recognized crime.

In the interest of further revealing your crime, please inform us of the following: 

-What specific weaponry are you planning to acquire and commit your terrorist activities (i.e. firearms and explosives).

-How do you plan on entering the country?

-How do you plan on organizing your 313-man terrorist force?

-How do you plan on enlisting this terrorist force?

-Where will you draw funding and support for this act of terrorism?

-Where will you do your terrorist training? 

-How many Iranian casualties do you envision for your terrorist operations?

-How are you planning to overcome the vastly superior force of the Ansar-ol Mahdi?

Nur-i-Azal

I do agree that the iranian regime should be brought down.  I remember reading about the recent hanging of 2 political prisoners (one of the 2 only 19) and thinking: "why do they (Iranians) let the regime do it? Why don't they fight back?"

However, find your call for arms immature. For if there is to be armed struggle, the call should come from within. With diaspora helping but NOT leading. That is my own experience.

As for my being Baha'i, I'm a non-believer.  The question I'd raised once was related to my comments in Cro forums on the human rights issues in Iran, the Baha'is being part of.

Rea

I am calling for the violent overthrow of the illegitimate military theocratic dictatorship presently occupying Iran, yes. If blood needs to be spilled in order to liberate Iran from the clutches of these monsters, then so be it. No liberation struggle in history has ever been won by slogans or demonstrations alone, and these monsters are not going away in the manner the Shah did. At some point arms need to be taken up and fighting against the oppressors and tyrants at hand needs to commence in all earnest.

Usually you Baha'is are squeemish in word at least about such things, what, with all your empty fluff and love koombaya rhetoric. This is not an empty fluff and love koombaya moment, and the military theocratic dictatorship in Iran is not going to just roll over. Since I am against all foreign intervention in Iran, the only other option is for Iranians to arm themselves and so take this regime out themselves!

دکتر بعد از این

The system used by the International Journal of Middle East Studies when transliterating the Persian izafa is -i. -i as izafa is used by countless Iranian scholars transliterating into English. Your ignorance is truly astounding, and obviously the ajnabi here is yourself. Go figure...

Sazegara built the Sepah. He knows its ins and outs, the strengths and weaknesses, of this body, so, yes, he should be involved in the process of its dismantling.

Nur-i-Azal

Are you calling for a bloodshed in the country that is already part of the region permanently in a state of turmoil ? 

Take a supply of your blood type with you too; Type F you said?

First of all make it "Artesh-E- azadi bakhsh-E- sabz". Your misusing "I" for "E" is a definite giveaway for your non-Iranian origin. I feel the urge to call you a foreigner this, foreigner that, but you will flag me....

Then why 313? Never gone to the movies? you seem to live in your designated fantasy world nonetheless. A Dirty Dozen should suffice.

You like Sazegara? He looks cute, hey? wink wink nudge nudge:))

Green Liberation Army (artesh-i-azadi-bakhsh-i-sabz)

Ok, as my first act of fighting I propose the creation of a Green Liberation Army (artesh-i-azadi bakhsh-i-sabz).

Who says I have hidden? The regime knows who I am, where I am and what I think about them, and I have done  absolutely nothing to hide from either them or your lot. The more appropriate question is why are you (and your specific pampered IC community here) hiding behind an alias and then accusing others of what you yourself do? I don't hide. Your type hides!

Hand me an arsenal, give me exactly 313 armed and committed Iranians initially (no more!) who have the best special forces training on the planet, give me Mohsen Sazegara as an advisor, and I will  personally begin the process of armed struggle against this fascist military theocracy and bring it down!

And unlike a bunch of old, ineffective farts calling themselves the Oghab Group, I would succeed. Guerilla warfare conducted by well seasoned and well trained special forces who are locals and studied up on the best guerilla warfare strategies of history (i.e. Mao's fight against the Japs, Ho Chih Minh and the VC, the 1980s Afghan Mujahideen, etc) is a guaranteed win!

And, oh, we're going to need wads and wads of cash as well! Get your NED/Washington lobbyist friends to put their hands in their deep pockets and give us money until it hurts ;-)

Good. Then...

Come out of your hiding place, pick up your gun of choice, and go fighting with them. Don't look back though,  we're all behind you.