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 oday's
New
York Times carries an amazing account of yesterday's rallies
in celebration of the 23rd anniversary of the Iranian Revolution.
The account, which runs along the same lines as an earlier piece
by the BBC, is so full of revolutionary zeal and enthusiasm that
one wonders — Really! — what possesses these people. The
journalists, that is, not the demonstrators. We know what possesses
them, all too well.
The largest
estimate I can find of the crowd in Tehran is about 300,000, and
while that may seem like a huge number to a Western journalist,
it is appallingly small by historical standards. Over the years,
the regime could generally count on a million or so enthusiasts,
but the last time a million people demonstrated in Tehran it was
to demand an end to the regime, just a few months ago. Yesterday's
mob was an insult to the regime, a further demonstration of its
weakening grip on the Iranian people.
The story is
even clearer when you realize that the regime knew in advance that
it would have to work hard to fill the available space, and it pulled
out all the stops to get bodies in place. The secret police, the
Basiji, went around threatening students and teachers, warning of
dire consequences if they didn't show up. All government employees,
and all members of the armed forces were ordered to participate.
The poor were told that if they didn't celebrate, their welfare
would be cut off. Thousands of buses dragged people from the countryside
to the city.
And still the
best they could come up with was about a third of the usual turnout.
That should have been the headline, and that is a big story.
But the Times
and the BBC played it as a triumph for the regime, and a humiliation
for the United States, as if the people of Iran had spontaneously
rallied to their ayatollahs and mullahs in the face of George W.
Bush's dreadful definition of the Islamic Republic as a country
ruled by an unelected elite that represses the desire for freedom
of the Iranian people. But Bush's definition is perfect, and yesterday's
events verified it.
If the Times
and the BBC wanted some really interesting aspect of the rally,
all they had to do was listen to Radio France Internationale, which
found a grim spectacle: a signup table for would-be martyrs. I suppose
there was a big banner over it, "anyone who wants to blow himself
up, sign here."
But not even
the French could tell us how many volunteers they got.
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