Thomas Wictor

The mullahs of Iran are in a lot of trouble. In fact, they’re facing their worst crisis since they officially took power on December 3, 1979. What many people don’t know is that Ayatollah Ruallah Khomeini’s policy was “export of Revolution.” In practice this meant that Iran became the center of “pan-Islamism.”

The Iranian Revolution did not portray itself to the Muslim world as a “Shiite” revolution, but as an Islamic Revolution for Muslims throughout the world. This inclusive attitude is part of Khomeini’s original doctrine even before the Revolution and was set forth by him in countless documents and speeches. Khomeini did not restrict his revolutionary vision to re-Islamization of the Muslim Umma, but saw in the Islamic regime in Iran a basis for renewing the spread of Islam to the “oppressed” peoples around the world.

The general Islamic frame of reference of the regime entails a belief in the universalism of the Islamic mission of the Revolution. Hence, the ideology of the regime motivated the various arms of the state to forge alliances against the “world arrogance” (i.e. the United States) not only with groups and states whose ideologies were closely compatible with that of Iran, but also with any element, which saw the US as a nemesis.

I always laugh when people say, “Iran hasn’t attacked anyone.” The entire purpose of the Iranian mullacracy is to spread radical Islam via revolution. Iran’s goal is to convert the world. This is the reason that the mullahs want nuclear weapons. There’s no religious fatwa prohibiting them; that’s a stupid lie. In reality Khomeini specifically called for their development.

The problem with dictatorships is that they’re hard to maintain. Although the People’s Republic of China has existed for over 66 years, the country has as many as 180,000 “mass incidents” or uprisings annually. On June 3 to 5, 1989, the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) killed about 5000 civilians in Beijing. Contrary to the accepted version of events, most of those who died were not democracy protesters. They were ordinary citizens trying to prevent the army from harming the protesters.

Civilians blocked the streets, so the PLA used ZSU-23-4 self-propelled antiaircraft guns (SPAAGs) on them.

Each 23mm 2A7 autocannon fires 850–1,000 of these rounds per minute.

They would’ve been high-explosive rounds, so each one was like a hand grenade.

How do you persuade soldiers to fire on defenseless civilians with a weapon like that? Two ways: You control the information the soldiers receive; and you take advantage of tribal, ethnic, or religious differences. If you want to put down an uprising in City A, you use troops from City B, where they don’t even speak the same dialect or language.

By the way, in the video above, the incompetent Syrian Arab Army didn’t even kill the sniper after expending all those rounds. You could still hear the snap, snap of the rebel rifle at the end of the clip.

The ability of dictatorships to play its people off against each other is the greatest weakness of totalitarianism. Here’s the ethnic makeup of Iran.

Almost 40 percent of the population isn’t Persian. The Persians aren’t famous for their tolerance.

If you’re mistreated and oppressed, how eager will you be to sacrifice yourself for the regime? How likely is it that the regime can remain cohesive?

And then there’s this.

In response to thirty-six years of aggression, it appears that there’s now a concerted, covert effort to degrade the fighting capabilities of Iran. Someone is killing every—and I mean every single—high-ranking Iranian, Lebanese, Iraqi, and Afghan commander in Syria. I’ve gleaned these names from multiple sources.

1. Brigadier General Hossein Hamedani – Quds Force architect of Iranian operations in Syria
2. Brigadier General Farshid Hasounizadeh – Quds Force
3. Brigadier General Hamid Mukhtarband – Quds Force
4. General Mohammad Ali Allah-Dadi – Quds Force liaison to Hezbollah and Syrian intelligence
5. Hassan Hussein al-Hajj – chief of Hezbollah military operations
6. Mahdi Hassan Obeid – senior Hezbollah commander
7. Alaa Kasad Mahudar al-Musawi – commander of Harakat al-Nujaba in Aleppo
8. Imad Mughniyeh Mohammed Issa – chief of Hezbollah operations in Syria and Iraq
9. Jihad Mughniyeh – commander of Hezbollah in Golan Heights and son of Imad Mughniyeh
10. Abu Ali al-Tabatabai – commander of Quds Force in the Golan Heights
11. Ismail al-Ashab – Hezbollah liaison with Iran
12. General Jabar Drisawi – commander of Iranian Basij in Syria
13. Brigadier General Mohammad Jamali Paghalleh – Quds Force
14. General Abdollah Eskandari – Quds Force
15. General Hassan Shateri – Quds Force liaison to Lebanon
16. Ismail Ali Heydari – Quds Force commander
17. Musa Ali Shahimi – senior Hezbollah commander
18. Ali Hussein Nassif – chief of Hezbollah operations in Syria
19. General ——– Assadi – commander of Quds Force expeditionary units in Lebanon
20. Ali Shabeeb – senior Hezbollah commander
21. Fadi al-Jazar – senior Hezbollah commander
22. Abbas Hussein Ridha – commander of Abu Fadl al-Abbas Brigade in Syria
23. Khader Nasrallah – senior Hezbollah commander and brother of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah
24. Ahmed Heyyari – commander of Quds Force Imam Hussein Battalion
25. General Hajj Nader Hamid – Quds Force
26. Brigadier General Reza Khavari – Quds Force
27. General Sajad Tahernia - Quds Force
28. Colonel Mostafa Ezzatollah Soleimani - commander of IRGC special forces battalion of Hazrat Bani Hashem (AS) Brigade 44
29. Mohammed Hussein Khani - Quds Force commander
30. Ismail Siratnia - Quds Force commander
31. Major Musa Jamshidian - IRGC 8th Armored Brigade
32. Mohammed Azizabadi - Quds Force commander

These are not combatants; they’re planners, organizers, and advisers. My list doesn’t include junior officers and enlisted men, who are easily replaced. In Syria Iran is losing commanders with decades of experience. Some of them are too senior to be identified.

Iran has taken so many casualties in Syria that we’re seeing some unprecedented pushback from the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

Mutiny within Iran’s Revolutionary Guard after it incurs heavy losses in Syria: source

Tehran and London, Asharq Al-Awsat—A rising death toll within Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in Syria is leading to a mutiny among some senior commanders, who have refused to obey orders to fight in the war-torn country, according to a source close to the Revolutionary Guard.

The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told Asharq Al-Awsat the commanders, who are also joined by a number of junior officers, have now been referred to a court-marshal on charges of “mutiny and treason.”

Iran, which alongside Russia is Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad’s main international ally, has denied it has combat troops in Syria, claiming it has only sent officers and generals within an advisory capacity to assist both the Syrian army and Hezbollah militias…

Meanwhile, the source told Asharq Al-Awsat several Revolutionary Guard generals from Ahvaz province, which has a large Iranian–Arab population, have “chosen retirement and pursuing business activities” rather than having to head to Syria.

The Revolutionary Guard court-marshals have now opened an official investigation into the large numbers of suddenly retired generals from the region in what they called “this critical time” for the Revolutionary Guard, according to the source.

Here’s what always happens to dictatorships during war: At some point, the people doing the fighting and dying start thinking, “Why isn’t the Supreme Leader here in the trenches with me?” Resentment sets in, and morale collapses. At the beginning of World War II, the Japanese refused to surrender. They’d organize suicide charges designed to kill all of their own men. By the end of the war?

The reason the Japanese look so afraid in that footage is that they themselves either didn’t take prisoners, or they tortured captives to death. They turned Chinese women into “rape chairs,” tying them in place with their legs apart so that any passing soldier could use her. Sometimes they butchered prisoners and ate them as rations.

A pantywaist on Twitter grasped his pearls, shrieked, and fainted when I posted this.

It’s brutal reality. I want realists in charge of my armed forces. Pantywaists should just fume, fan themselves, type primly and furiously on social media, and enjoy the benefits of being protected by realists.

Besides, after the enemy stops fighting, he’s no longer your enemy. Then you can help him. As an American, doesn’t this make you proud?

So much for the “racist US soldiers” trope.

I don’t hate Iranians. However, their armed forces need to be killed until they stop fighting.