OP-ED: "Iran's Hidden Revolution," by Danielle Pletka and Ali Alfoneh, New York Times 17 June 2009.

Iran's Revolutionary Guards have affected a coup d'etat--silently. Ahmadinejad is the stalking horse of this crowd that wants to--in effect--secularize and concentrate political power in the nation within their small ranks (the nomeklatura, or highest ranks, of the elite). Why do this? Popular resentment against the mullahs grows (urban types hate the stultifying rigidity of the laws, and the rural poor hate the corruption), so to preserve the autocratic rule of the elite, they must be marginalized. Many have written in the past (noted here) about Ahmadinejad's efforts to concentrate new powers in the presidency, to--in effect--create an alternate power center based on the military/Revolutionary Guards/etc. The Guards in particular rule like a one-party state already in the economy. The Supreme Leader buys into this "undercutting" of his own class out of sheer survival, the great fear being a soft regime change a la Ukraine (and yes, see how the opposition embraces green), the secondary fear being encirclement by U.S. military forces. In sum, the "Islamic" is being removed as well as the trappings of the "Republic."