(09-21-2022, 01:27 PM)flsprtsgod Wrote:

(09-21-2022, 01:08 PM)mikesez Wrote: In December of 1978, between 2 and 9 million Iranians participated in street protests.  These were probably the largest protests in history.  They demanded that the Ayatollah return to Iran and the Shah leave.  So any new Iranian government was going to let the Ayatollah return.
Once the Ayatollah returned, his plane was so surrounded by supporters that he had to leave the airport in a helicopter.  I don't think the military was ever going to go against that type of popular sentiment.  Certainly many wanted to.  But they never had the chance.  Too many on the other side.

You don't seem to understand the nature of military junta.

A junta doesn't need to be popular, correct, but at the very least they need ambivalence from their population. 
The Iranian public was not ambivalent at that time.

Egypt's recent history is instructive in my opinion.  Everyone agreed that Mubarak had to go, just like everyone agreed that Pahlavi had to go.  Yet there was a need to give the religious fundamentalists a taste of power and a chance to participate, or else they would have remained violent. So Morsi was given a chance to openly contest for power just as Khomeini was.  But Morsi wasn't as shrewd as Khomeini.  He was quickly deposed, while Khomeini held on.  
One difference is secular folks in Egypt never deluded themselves to think that they could let Morsi be a figurehead.  They tried to prevent him from gaining power by forcing him to run in an election, and after he won, they refused to cooperate with him.  Secularists in Iran thought they could use and mold the Ayatollah, which is why they didn't fear him initially. Once they realized Khomeini was playing all or nothing it was too late for them.

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