Iran's cheerleaders are on borrowed time |
Predictions ageing poorly is an occupational hazard for journalists and commentators. But few have gone as sour as those made by Roger Cooper in this magazine, in February 1979, days after the last Shah of Iran had fled.
In a piece titled ‘Is Khomeini the leader for Iran?’, Cooper speculated that ‘the prospect… of an Iranian Islamic republic… must surely be more alluring to all but the most stubborn defenders of an ancient regime’. The Ayatollah, he suggested, offered Iranians ‘the chance to resume their true national and cultural identity’. No suggestion was made of imminent death squads, mass imprisonments or looming theocratic repression and economic hardship.
Cooper can be forgiven for failing to realise just how miserable the Islamic Republic would be. At the time, western commentators, most prominently Michel Foucault, were falling over themselves to celebrate Khomeini’s ascension. But what cannot be forgiven is those who, for the past four decades, have continued to defend the regime he........