ARTICLE: Revolutionary Ayatollah, BY MEHDI KHALAJI, Foreign Policy, JANUARY 19, 2010

The essence of the revolution's moment of failure right now in Iran.

An entirely predictable evolution, if you've tracked revolutions in the past.

But it's why I consider Iran to be settling into a rather conventional threat role, and hence my non-obsession with its reach for nukes.

We have seen this package before, and we know how to deal with it, either containing/engaging like with Brezhnevian USSR or breaking through with post-Cultural Revolution late-Mao PRC.

(Via WPR's Media Roundup)