(Photo courtesy of politicallyillustrated.com)

The Iranian people are proud of themselves. To them, the current uprisings that are rocking the Middle East are an extension of the protests which followed Iran’s deeply flawed presidential election in 2009, the one in which Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was widely seen as having cheated his opponent, Mir Hossein Mousavi, out of a legitimate victory. To a certain extent, this is a legitimate analysis of the 2011 “Arab revolution”.  The government crackdown on the 2009 protests in Tehran also caused hundreds of dead and mass arrests. The only difference, of course, is that they were ultimately unsuccessful.

But drawing a parallel between Iran and  the current protests in Libya, for example, is useful. Both countries are run by tyrannical, anti-American regimes, which should put to rest the notion that it is solely America’s fault that dictators are the norm in the Middle East. Both countries’ governments are clearly more than willing to kill hundreds — if not thousands — of innocents to maintain power, even more so than Mubarak’s moribund regime. Furthermore, the level of violence used against the protesters in Libya is horrifying, as was the case with Iran almost two years ago. Imagine President Obama ordering F-16s to strafe Tea Party protests, or Wisconsin governor Scott Walker hiring mercenaries to fire live ammunition at the rioting crowds of Madison. That would be unthinkable in the United States. It is certainly not in Libya.

Another interesting parallel the governments of Libya and Iran share is their use of prison massacres to maintain order: in 1988, Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini executed up to 30,000 political prisoners in a five-month period. In 1996, Libya’s Col. Moammar Gaddafi executed over 1,200 political prisoners in the Abu Salim Prison to little fuss from the international community (imagine the harsh censure Israel would receive had it committed such heinous crimes). In Libya, these horrendous executions have helped catalyze the protest movement, perhaps since the executions are still fresh in the memories of many Libyans.

A final similarity between Libya and Iran with regard to the 2011 protests: both countries have had to rely on foreign troops of some sort to control the masses. Libya has been suspected of using African mercenaries to do its dirty work; African soldiers and militiamen have been spotted all over the country, especially in Benghazi, where some of the bloodiest rioting has occurred. And there are reports that the Iranian government has flown in thousands of Hizbollah fighters from Lebanon (via Syria) to patrol key facilities in case the Iranian “Green” opposition movement starts another 2009-esque protest.

An Iranian friend I have, who lives in Tehran and for safety reasons does not wish not be named, noted very astutely that “the people will not let the blood that has been spilled be in vain, and will eventually, over the coming years, prevail.”

I think that for Libya and Iran, this is true. The similarities between the two are not mere coincidences. In both cases, illegitimate despotic governments are being challenged by the will of the people. And since neither Iran nor Libya have an organized Islamist opposition like the Muslim Brotherhood, these protests should be welcomed as a huge step forward in the Middle East. Ahmadinejad may not fall in 2011. But Gaddafi seems to have a chance. Inshallah.

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