One year ago, the Iranian people shocked their rulers, and their rulers, in turn, horrified the world. When the Iranian regime announced an implausible landslide victory for President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad just hours after polls closed on the country's June 12 presidential election, hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions of Iranians spontaneously poured onto the streets. The regime responded with brutality, and the course of Iranian history was suddenly put into play.
One year ago, it looked as though the ruling regime stood inches away from a gaping precipice.
Experts all but proved (.pdf) that the government stole the elections, and the regime came under fire from all corners. For a time, it seemed that if
the opposition Green Movement could just give the mullahs one more vigorous push, it might send the regime tumbling over the edge. That might have brought an end to three decades of revolution and clerical rule in Iran, dramatically reshuffling the geopolitical playing board. ...