Life Blog :: Preempting the Basijis


Jun 20 '09 12:53am

Preempting the Basijis

Mousavi supporters in Iran aren't sitting down and waiting for the Basijis to massacre them:

Mousavi supporters were out on the streets 'Basiji hunting.' Their resolve is no less than these thugs -- theyre after hunting them down. They use their phones, their childhood friends, their intimate knowledge of their districts and neighbours to plan their attacks -- they're organised and they're supported by their community so they have little fear. They create the havoc they're after, ambush the thugs, use their Cocktail Molotovs, disperse and re-assemble elsewhere and then start again - and the door of every house is open to them as safe harbour -- they're community-connected.

The Basiji's are not. These are not the students in the dorms, they're the street young -- they know the ways better than most thugs - and these young, a surprising number of them girls, are becoming more agile in their ways as each night passes on.

(I read a post recently that analogized the Basij to the US government arming radical evangelical Christians with guns and axes to hunt liberals. Worth keeping that analogy in mind.)

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