July 9th - Iran's Independence Day?

Via the Command Post:

Diana West - Will July 9 be Iran's Fourth?

Whether this effort will lead to an ultimate showdown with the mullahs, or result in a crackdown on pro-democracy activists like the one that took place on July 9, 1999, nobody knows. But as terrorism expert Michael Ledeen has pointed out on the National Review's Web site, the mullahs, having arrested 4,000 demonstrators last month, are taking this tense situation very seriously. The regime itself admitted that just a quarter of its arrests were students. "The rest came from other walks of life," Ledeen writes. "In other words, the demonstrations were not restricted to a single sector of Iranian society, but were, for the first time, a truly national protest, both sociologically and geographically."

Iranian-born author and journalist Amir Taheri has recently elaborated on the democracy movement's varied nature. Writing on Townhall.com, he reports that democratic sympathies in Iran extend from the working class to the intellectual elite, and include the nearly two-thirds of the Iranian parliament (Majlis) that have petitioned "to transform Iran from a despotic-theocratic regime into a democratic one."

Meanwhile, Iranian Girl awaits tomorrow with hope and apprehension:

Tomorrow is July 9...the day that Iranians will show what they really want, & will prove that they're not a kind of people who leave alone the students & the young guys who are spending they life in prisons, just because they wanted freedom for all Iranians. I really hope that they do it well & I myself will try my best to do whatever I can as a young girl, we must also encourage each other; that's very important… Anyway, I know that all people in the world support us spiritually, & pray for all fighters of freedom. I wish that they also show their support by whatever they can do; I'm sure that bloggers & writers from other countries will not forget us. Oh, I feel that I'm making a will!!! You know, I can not ignore this feeling of anxiety...Ok, let's see what is waiting for Iranians in their destiny.

(Via NZPundit.)