(July 14, 2015 at 4:44 pm)Crossless1 Wrote: Iran is a young country, in terms of its demographics, and there is a great deal of anecdotal evidence that the younger Iranians are not necessarily on board with the ruling generation. Always remember: you have not converted a man because you have silenced him. The younger Iranians might surprise all of us by proving to be better republicans than many in the West once they come of age to take power.
Because of my own life story, I pay very close attention to Iranian affairs, and maintain friendships with expatriate Persians here, and judging your comments against their views, I think you've got a good handle on it. Young Iranians are of course somewhat suspicious of us, given our history of meddling there, but at the same time, there's a very active underground in Iran that embraces Western values in a broad array of issues. They may not be politically powerful enough to effect change -- but the 2009 unrest was not a random event. The younger folk there feel alienated from the political elite, and that too is another reason why this deal happened at all -- because the government had to mollify people suffering from the sanctions, in order to reduce the risk of internal unrest again. Full bellies are less prone to revolt.
