THE COMING PALACE COUP IN IRAN

Michael Ledeen, one of the true heavyweights of foreign policy conservatives and author of Ledeen's Lair in To The Point, is famous for his constant refrain:  Faster, please!  Meaning faster towards defeating the Islamofascist terror masters.

It would seem that Michael is finally getting his wish, with NATO (primarily American) forces decimating the Taliban in Afghanistan, Bush's "surge" already working in Iraq, the president trashing the demands of Jimmy Baker's Iraq Surrender Group and the Defeatocrats in Congress.

Most particularly, though, Michael wants us to go faster in getting ridding of the terror masters in Iran.  And there is no doubt that US action against Iran has dramatically sped up recently.

The US Navy has a second carrier group now in the Persian Gulf, overwhelmingly intimidating military power on Iran's doorstep. 

At last, Bush has authorized US forces to hunt down and kill or capture Iranian operatives in Iraq.

The White House is targeting Iranian financial assets throughout the world.

So, finally we are going faster – but towards what?  Is the US goal a democratic revolution effecting genuine regime change, with all the mullah terror masters out of power?  No – not if the State Department has its wish.

Our Foggy Bottom Pinstripes are doing everything they can to prevent genuine regime change in Iran.  What they want instead is a palace coup, the seizure of the government by different forces within the government, not outside it.

They are terrified of real regime change, so are going along with Bush's military pressure as a way to support a coup engineered by yet another Ayatollah, Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani.

It's going to come down like this.  Iran's "Supreme Leader" Ayatollah Khamenei is dying, and Rafsanjani has organized enough support in the Majlis, Iranian Parliament, to impeach Ahmadinejad.

The Iranian economy is collapsing along with the collapse of oil prices, the hatred most Iranians have for the Ahmadinutjob the Persian Midget is intense.  Add US military pressure and UN sanctions, and the timing is perfect for the Midget to go, and Rafsanjani to take over as Supreme Leader and/or President.

Once he does, his deal with our diplomats is to denounce the Midget's rhetoric of wiping Israel off the map, open up the nuke facilities to UN inspectors, say he wants peace with Iraq, blah, blah, all for show. 

Sanctions will be lifted, our carriers will go elsewhere, nukes will still be built albeit in far greater secrecy, the Iranian people still won't be free, but bankers and diplomats will be happy.

And in truth it will be a sigh of relief to have the Midget gone.  The mullahs will remain in power, they'll still finance Hamas and Hezbollah and Mookie in Iraq, just more discretely.  Yet it will be progress, like a quarter-loaf, not even half a loaf much less the whole one.

So watch out for the coming palace coup in Iran, remember the name Rafsanjani, and know we can thank our State Department for him.