Your Jan. 22 editorial looks at the question of whether the present brutal Iranian regime will collapse or endure from the perspective of internal regime cohesiveness and dynamics. I look at it from a different perspective.
My perspective focuses on the external pressures brought against the regime when brave Iranian dissidents rise up to challenge it, as has been occurring for the past several weeks. It is possible, but very unlikely, that the brave Iranian freedom fighters can cause the collapse of the regime on their own.
As so aptly pointed out by broadcast news analyst Mark Levin during his Fox News show on Jan. 17, in comparing the American colonists fighting the British in the Revolutionary War to the dissident Iranian protestors now trying to win their freedom, the American colonists could not possibly have won the Revolutionary War without the critical military assistance provided by their foreign allies (particularly the French Navy and thousands of French troops).
Likewise, the brave Iranian freedom fighters of today cannot possibly win their battle against the repressive Islamic regime unless the United States, the only world power willing and able to directly intervene militarily, does so to help the Iranian people win their freedom.
Marc L. Caroff, Virginia Beach
