The last US-installed regime in Iran, the Shah’s, crumbled when the Persian people withdrew their consent. It didn’t matter that he had US weaponry and a vast US-trained military and secret police. It all blew away like leaves in the wind, without violence, when the people stopped obeying him. Is this happening again in Iran? We can only hope, and that the result will be a less oppressive regime that is still independent, and not another province in the US empire, let alone part of its occupied territories. And by the way, Americans could copy the Iranians. The gang of thieves called the US government exists only because we obey it and salaam it. It too can blow away like leaves in the wind, non-violently, if we withdraw our consent: read Rothbard.

I do truly wish the Iranian people the best and do hope that they are able to rid themselves of the tyrannical mullahs. However, that is a choice for the Iranian people to make, and not self-serving American politicians in Washington DC.

John McCain should shut up,as he has neither America’s interests at heart, nor that of the Iranian people. It is political prostitutes like McCain that collaborated in the destruction of Iraq, the killing of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis, turning another 3 million into refugees, and getting over 4,000 Americans killed in an immoral conflict that was never in our interest. I hope that the Iranians can take a look at their Iraqi neighbors and see the cost of having the “support” of people like John McCain and to let him and the other DC parasites know that their “support” is not wanted.

So said an Iranian American acquaintance of mine to me a few years ago over drinks.

Why can’t we just leave people alone?

Sounds simple enough.

Of course it will come to this.

The country is bankrupt and can no longer afford wars to install “freedom” and “democracy” in Third World countries.

PS: My acquaintance and his fellow Iranian American restaurateur are fans of Pat Buchanan. [We hope you introduced them to Mercer.] Both are secular, so it’s not like they are “Islamofascists.”

Before Saturday, the regime could credibly posture as defender of the nation, defiant in the face of the threats from Israel, faithful to the cause of the Palestinians, standing firm for Iran’s right to enrich uranium for peaceful nuclear power.

Today, the regime, including the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, is under a cloud of suspicion that they are but another gang of corrupt politicians who brazenly stole a presidential election to keep themselves and their clerical cronies in power.

What should we do now? Wait for the dust to settle.

No U.S. denunciation of what took place in Iran is as credible as the reports and pictures coming out of Iran. Those reports, those pictures are stripping the mullahs of the only asset they seemed to possess — that, even if fanatics, they were principled, honest men.

People should read it all.