Letter from an Iranian student

Don't Accept This Coup
By Kaveh from Tabriz

Ahmadinejad has taken revenge on the students of Iran during these violent days. The regime's aim is to damage universities, since they are the first base of change, movement and protest.

I live in the dorms at Tehran University. I was asleep when Basij militiamen entered my room early Monday morning, demolished everything and started beating us. A man with a long beard broke my notebook and said: "It is destroyed, this book that you were using against Islam and Ahmadinejad."

They beat students more when they saw posters of Mousavi in their rooms. And they carried big knives and guns.

They also attacked the women's dormitory next door. The Supreme Leader calls us rioters, but I want to ask him: How can sleeping women in their beds be rioters? Is this the Islamic justice he believes in?

President Obama's speech was good; he says that he will support us. He also said that nations must decide the fate of their countries by themselves. I agree with him, but now we don't have any power to change the situation, so we need help and attention.

We ask the president not to accept this coup d'etat.

Source

I've applauded Pres. Obama's low key approach so far but now the situation has changed. I think he needs to condemn the threat to put down peaceful protest by force. He has to take sides more clearly.

Will this end with a bang or a whimper -- or might it, change, even succeed? As I said in one of my first blogs on the issue, it comes down to how much blood Iranians themselves are willing to shed. That's the lesson of history. What needs to happen for success is the army, or a significant portion of it, to back the protesters. There have been hints of sympathy. Now it's time for Iranians to put up or shut up, a choice which is never easy.

There's also the strategy of a General Strike. Instead of going to the streets, everybody stays home. They shut down the country as much as possible.