Ghost of a flea

The only faint scintilla of comedy in all of this is the legion of Iranian leftists and their supporters (C. Hitchens, p'raps?) who were shocked - shocked! - that their campaign to overthrow the Shah resulted in something considerably less enlightened than their fever dream of the return of Mossadegh from the grave. Sometimes leftists resemble mad people more than anything else. Those that weren't left to the tender mercies of the Revolutionary Guards are here now, mouthing the same "radical" canards by day and enduring troubling dreams by night.

When I was at the University of Florida in the early 1970s, large numbers of very attractive, chicly dressed young Iranian women, much like the ones in the posted photo, were visible on campus, courtesy of scholarships from the _evil_ Shah's government. I further remember that, almost to a man/woman, the Iranian students were vociferously anti-Shah, often gathering to demonstrate against him, while shouting slogans like, "Shah is a fascist butcher!" . . . "Down with Savak!" . . . "Shah is an American stooge!"

Having come to the U. S. as an exile from Castro's revolutionary paradise, my political delusion detector was naturally triggered by the revolutionary posturing of the Iranian students, and I would sometimes, in a low-key fashion, suggest to some of them that the Ayatollah Khomeini and his mullah-minions might not meet their expectations if they succeeded in overthrowing the Shah. Invariably, even the mildest expressions of skepticism on my part met with loud, indignant ripostes from them. I have often, and sadly, wondered what became of these fervid, idealistic young Iranians, especially the women. They were so fetching!