Punch? The Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei promised to punch the West during the Thursday’s anniversary of the Islamic revolution. I hate to disappoint all the conspiracy theorists but it is not likely that Iran will strike somebody with a bomb. Iranian regime wants to punch us by showing they have no opposition. And they will do it with a parade. This is the same old tug-dictator’s totalitarian trick. Khamenei said it clear:

Through its unity, the Iranian nation will by Allah’s favor stun the arrogant powers, including the U.S., Britain, and the Zionist regime on the 22nd of Bahman.

Through its unity… To understand the importance of the parades we should dive into the mind-set of the dictators. It is a bit of a crazy world in their head. The parades are key element for the totalitarian regimes. To be successful a parade needs to achieve one thing: to be picture perfect.

Growing up in the communist Eastern Europe I know a thing or two about parades and I even marched in many of those. There are few techniques that make a parade of people look especially great. The most important is the number of the participants. Every dictator needs a crowd big enough to march in front of his waving hand for at least 3-4 hours. The uninterrupted TV coverage shall consist of showing dense crowd of healthy looking neat dressed folks waving back at the leader. The size of the crowd does matter. If the Iranian leadership can pull few hours of people marching in their support they will consider it a success, but not yet a punch.

Uniformity is another favorite technique used by totalitarian parade organizers. If all the people wear a shirt of the same color it looks like the individuals become one, they become a group. It may be achieved by people carrying the same sign, or waving a red rose, or chanting the same slogan, or marching in sync. Dictators like to see the crowd to appear unified in their support for the regime.

This is why the single most horrifying threat for the Iranian regime today is if on Thursday somebody shows at the parade wearing green. Officially the marching crowd in Iran should wear black or gray. Leaders of opposition are urging folks to protest peacefully by showing up in green.

The Iranian regime leaders are determined to show unity on Thursday. They are determined to show that the opposition has no chance. If there is no green wearing person in the crowd the Iranian Dictators will call this a punch in the face of the West.

The world is watching the birth of a democratic movement in Iran. On the 11th of February the world will be looking for a spot of green in the parade. This spot will be a sign of hope that the seed of democracy is planted and will grow and may be one day will overshadow the cruel regime that rules Iran today.
The USA and the EU stated “the potential for further violence and repression during the coming days, especially around the anniversary of the Islamic Republic’s founding on 11 February.” The regime already executed publicly two young man accused of organizing the opposition.

Today there are regular folks in Iran that are looking at a piece of green garment. They have to decide if wearing green tomorrow is worth their lives. Few of those people will have the guts to wear it. They will probably be stopped before they reach the parade. Let’s pray for their lives!