The Current Discussion: What do your heart and head tell you as you look at pictures, videos, and other kinds of stories from Iran? Should the world help the protesters -- and how?

The street protests in Tehran again confirm the belief that freedom is a universal basic human need. No one and no people can live with their freedom suppressed for a long time. Sooner or later, they will revolt and press for their rights to freedom.

We saw this in the streets of Rangoon last year, and in Beijing in 1989. We have seen it in Eastern European capital cities, in Jakarta and in Manila and in many other places around the world at different times. In some countries, these movements led to a change in regime. In others it led to the brutal suppression of the demonstrators.

In Iran, it could still go either way. Of course we all wish for a happy ending.

The question we ask about Iran is whether this desire for freedom among the people has reached a critical mass to tip the balance in their favor, to the point where a brutal suppression would be so horrific even the rulers could not stomach.

Continue »