The sea of people stretched for five miles. Untold numbers of people. Ten of thousands, hundreds of thousands, millions marched synchrony, overflowing the streets, chanting, “‘No fear, No fear, we are with each other.’”
Their defiant leader, just hours before under house arrest, greeted his throngs like a returning general.
Still, masked gunmen, propped on rooftops–hired militia of illegitimate government–unloaded their AK-47s onto the mass of protesters, reaping destruction, death. But it did not matter. They killed one and injured many, but just hardened the resolve of countless more.
Soldiers raided the University of Tehran, destroying students’ computers–the movement’s most potent weapon–and arrested hundreds. The State shut down the People’s cell phone service, banned foreign journalists and suffocated internet bandwidth. But that did not matter either. Thousands more used Twitter to spread the truth to the Western world and fed their homemade videos onto incalculable number of websites that no government could ever contain.
Their once Supreme Leader, now relegated to nervous observer, saw his power slip away as the state run television station, forbidden to broadcast any sliver of dissent in the morning, televised the mass protests throughout the country by afternoon. His voice, just 24 hours earlier, declared on state radio–every fifteen minutes–the soundness and finality of the sham of an election, now called for an investigation into the charade that he had just officially certified as legitimate and decisive.
The demonstrations will continue well into the night, just as they did the last. So far the Army has remained neutral. Will they get their marching orders tomorrow? Time will tell. But the question is not if they will be ordered to quell the emerging revolution.
The question is, at this point, how can they possibly stop it?
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