It wouldn't take a war to overthrow Iran's mullahs

The Telegraph reports:

Whereas there was no chance of creating a functioning democracy in Iraq without direct intervention, there is reason to hope that, given the opportunity, Iranians would shake off their theocracy and join the modern world.

How might we catalyse such a revolution? In three ways.

First, we should cease our dealings with the mullahs. EU countries, in contrast to the Americans, have pursued a policy of "constructive engagement" with Teheran, exchanging state visits and sending Jack Straw on repeated visits. (Iranians take Britain especially seriously, perhaps imagining that we are still the power we were when we last occupied their country in 1941.)

That policy is now in shreds, as Iran's nuclear programme nears completion.

Second, we should give financial and political assistance to dissidents inside the country.

Third, we should back the main resistance group, the People's Mujahidin, which, until recently, we treated as a terrorist organisation in order to appease Khamenei.

As their exiled pretender, the Shah's heir Reza Pahlavi, reminds us, Iranians are not asking for our soldiers, merely for our active sympathy.

Give them the tools, and they will finish the job. more

I agree with all the suggestions, except the backing of the MEK. Support for the MEK by the US will only confuse and anger the pro American Iranian people.

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