Assassinating Kamenei won't cause the theocracy to implode. Far from it — There are defined successors that, although they may jostle and backstab each other to become top dog, have a common interest in keeping the system running, because they are the main beneficiaries from it.
You would need basically a complete wipeout of almost everybody in the higher echelons of the regime.
GLUUUURK!
scratching at .8, just hopin'
Beware the Crazy Man.
Wiping out the theocracy or wiping out the Dinner Jacket's dictatorship won't solve anything. For all their faults, both sides play into the psyche of the Iranian people. One promotes Shiism among a religious population in a world of Sunnis, and the other invokes nationalism in a very proud people. The problem is really one of power corrupts and magnatude. The best way then would be for the reformists to gain power and subsequently have them reduce the power of the other two factions.
Outright destruction would only strengthen the hand of facism or fundamentalism. Moderating them on the other hand will subvert their excesses.
Final Fantasy, Foreign Policy, and Bollywood. Helluva combo, that...
^^^^
Kamenei is replaceable. He lacks the personal magnetism and clerical credentials of Khomeini and was basically given the job entirely because he was an unspectacular middleman. Plus, besides the Supreme leader you have the Guardian Council, the Assembly of Religious Experts, and the Expediency Council, all of which are controlled by the Shiite Clerics. To get rid of Iran's theocracy, you'd need a revolution.
edited 21st May '11 7:16:00 PM by ZeiqthePyro
Needs Caffeine
Night Clerk of the Apacalypse.
I believe Shinra has highlighted nicely an excellent solution.
Who watches the watchmen?
The interesting development is that Ahmadinejad's planned successor is quite openly about "fuck Shariah". That's why Ahmadinejad, even though he deserves to hang for the electoral fraud and the repression, is the lesser evil.
Still, Ahmadinejad is not a smart plotter. If he planned to reduce the clerics to irrelevance, he should have offered a coalition government to the secularists and have moved openly against Khamenei back a few years ago. By oppressing the revolt, he made sure the secularists would never trust him.
Can't anybody just assassinate Khamenei and cause the islamic system to implode?
edited 20th May '11 3:39:32 AM by SavageHeathen
You exist because we allow it and you will end because we demand it.