Iran is now in its fifteenth day of nationwide revolt. From Tehran to Tabriz, from Mashhad to the oil towns of Khuzestan and the Kurdish cities of the west, a furious, fearless population has taken to the streets. Hundreds have already been killed. Thousands more have been dragged into prisons and torture chambers. Internet access has been throttled. The regime is shooting into crowds. Yet still the protests grow.

This is not a factional quarrel or a palace coup. It is a revolutionary moment. And yet, as Iranians bleed, Western media and think-tank circles have become transfixed by a grotesque sideshow, the idea that Reza Pahlavi, son of the deposed Shah, might somehow ride back into Tehran as Iran’s savior. This fantasy would be comic if it were not so dangerous.

Pahlavi has done nothing for 47 years except wait. He has no political organization in Iran. No underground network. No resistance units. No trade unions. No youth movement. No women’s movement. No workers’ committees. No student organizations. No strike committees. No revolutionary infrastructure of any kind.

He is not leading anything. He is commentating from California. Yet he is treated by Western journalists as if he were a government-in-waiting, despite the absurdity of his own statements. He has openly said that if he were “restored” to power, he would not even move his family back to Iran. He has boasted that he would retain the IRGC, the very killing machine now gunning down protesters, to maintain “order” after the fall of the regime. That is the........

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