Hand drilling a regime

On mountain roads it can be impossible to get a crane into position, and use of explosives may endanger the entire road construction or trigger an avalanche.

The method employed instead is to hand drill the rock, examining and amplifying natural weaknesses in the rock.

Apparently this expert can detect the subtle fractures by a combination of sight, hearing and touch, banging on the rock with a hammer among other things to reveal the particular structure.

After weakening the rock it will still appear solid, blocking the road for travellers, until the demolition expert can basically hit a few times on selected spots to make the entire boulder crumble into pieces.

Similarities to the Green Revolution

The method has similarities to the way Iranian protesters are approaching the oppressive Iranian regime, employing public demonstrations and a vast array of methods from the civil disobedience handbook to highlight and enhance the weaknesses of the ruling elite.

Political hand-drilling has been applied before: It was the parable of rocks blocking mountain roads that inspired me to begin campaign blogging in 2003, as it became clear to me that the Neoconservative response to 9/11 would likely cause a complete destabilization of not only the Middle East, but the entire international society.

At the end of it lay a view to World War III or what is popularly known as Clash of Civilizations.

You may say that the international and American protest movement combined did not manage to effectively put an end to the Neocon regime in Washington - Bush ran his second term to the end.

But his approval ratings were so poor that it paved the way for the miracle in November, the election of the first African-American president and one with significant humanist and liberal leanings.

The lessons from the anti-Neocon movement

In the case of the anti-Neocon movement a number of physical factors combined with visual and verbal campaigning worked together to undermine not only the political but also the ideological platform of the Washington regime:

Widespread protests world wide, even before the invasion of Iraq, the leaking of significant documents (Downing Street Memo) proving intelligence fraud and bad faith statements by leading politicians from Bush to Blair, public protests through mass media and in the blogosphere.

Hurricane Katrina, in the eyes of many observers, marked the turning point when comes to media support - it was no longer possible for the majority of media workers to report from the Washington viewpoint, because of the public outrage over the neglect and maltreatment of New Orleans residents.

Important individuals, namely former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson and his wife, Valerie Plame, came to play a crucial role in the unravelling of the Neocon cabal.

But none of this would have had any lasting effect if it had not been for the proactive and very aggressive outing of the Project for a New American Century (PNAC) and a vast army of pundits and bloggers working to inform the public and alter the general framework of the political discourse.

Iran regime now a primary obstacle to progress

Ironically, one of the fiercest battles were over the possibility of an invasion of Iran, reportedly the next step in the US plan to forcefully democratize the world. Iran then served to curb the imperial ambitions of the Bush regime.

Today the picture has been turned 180 degrees on the vertical axis, as President Barack Obama is under pressure to get USA involved, but refuses to do so - having an agenda that involves resetting the diplomatic relations between the two nations, ending US oil dependency and military involvement in the Middle East, and settling the nuclear dispute between Israel and Iran in a peaceful manner.

On the other side the Iranian government dangerously borders on refuelling Western Neoconservatism and anti-Islamism, generously providing any and all possible evidence of its hostile intentions by fiercely combatting even the tiniest signs of internal dissent. If Tehran can act in this manner against its own, what are Arabs, Israeli and Westerners to expect?

Projecting a path of militarism from the bellicose rhetoric of Ahmadinejad in the past was harder, and arguments that "Iran has never attacked another nation" more easily made before the election. Just one month ago Israeli fears were more easily ridiculed.

When scorpions commit suicide

It took a long time before the rats began to leave the sinking ship, but predictably - as the Neocon ideology was thoroughly discredited - they left it in waves, when first the bubble had burst on the grandiose PNAC scheme.

One of the most notable - if not the most notorious - member of the PNAC think tank was Francis Fukuyama, a tremendously gifted and highly respected sociologist and author. When he left the Neocons, apologizing for his participation, the ideological foundation began to slide.

Western supremacy at any and all costs was suddenly not percieved as automatically desirable or even justifiable. Forces outside USA, increasingly concerned with American unilateralism, began stacking up an opposition. European nations distanced themselves from Bush, and Russia and China also stepped up their game.

Iran benefited from this, utilizing a widespread anti-American sentiment, and the move is echoed in recent statements by Ahmadinejad to "break the Western monopoly of power".

Ahmadinejad miscalculates, however, forgetting to take into account that USA by electing Obama president has revitalized its image, to some degree countered anti-American sentiments world wide and improved its market value on the international stock exchange of public opinion.

The outside on the Iranian regime will increase over time, leaving for fewer avenues of escape, fewer political moves left. The Iranian government is already caught in a ring of fire and committing political suicide.

The question remaining is how many Iranians the governing elite will take with them as they go, and how soon they can be stopped.