The red warning flags have been flying high far too long. Since the emergence of the Islamic Republic inside Iran there has been nothing but turbulence throughout the world and since its inception it has had time to propagate and mastermind some of the most evil deeds.  The world's casual approach of doing business as usual with the Islamic Republic for 27 years has come at a grave cost.

And so it begins. Tehran's arrogance towards the international community and Ahmadinejad's call to wipe Israel off the map have been the neon writing on the wall. If there is one thing the turbaned tyrants of Tehran have been successful at it has surely been in tactfully playing the diversion game.

Toying with international leaders over its  'clandestine' atomic weapons program, denying the Holocaust, orchestrating frantic protests over cartoons and now as it rejects Security Council's demands and the EU deadline, Tehran's clerics seem to be trying to evade the threat of consequential sanctions by declaring war on Israel via its ambassador Hezbollah's Hassan Nasrallah.

Violence is how they came to rule and it is through violence they continue to preserve their dictatorship where the policy of this regime has always been devout to instigating terror both domestically and internationally dominating world politics by supporting, funding and harbouring terrorists. They have provided the pistol and the terrorists have simply pulled the trigger.

Even perhaps more significantly the battlefield in Lebanon will also divert attention from the Mullahs' heinous domestic issues, from both the international community and also from the Iranian people themselves, a population of almost 70 million who have been suffering their own injustice since the terrorists took power in 1979 with the help of their imported Palestinian fighters who rode around on motorbikes in the streets of Tehran wearing red armbands and harassing women into wearing veils. Since then there has been a growing opposition movement, consisting of students who make up to 70% of the population, the labour force, women's freedom movement and religious /ethnic minorities. If one does the math, this would incorporate the greater part of the population — and the Achilles heel of the Mullahcracy.

As the people's hunger for freedom and democracy has given them an appetite for boldness and disobedience against their hijackers, the demonstrations have been escalating weekly, filling cities from Azerbaijan to Baluchestan, shouting slogans such as 'We don't want nuclear energy' and 'Forget Palestine—think of us'. Although the regime is cracking down on all anti—government demonstrations, imprisoning, torturing and murdering innocent Iranians it is noteworthy to point out that a few thousand Mullahs, Revolutionary Guards and Basiji have increasingly found controlling the remaining millions of discontented people a growingly strenuous burden.

The clerical regime knows that unless it destroys its political opponents, then they will destroy the regime.

Hence the Holocaust—denying provocateur Ahmadinejad would welcome a war with Israel as he would strategically exploit it to arouse nationalistic and patriotic emotions of the forsaken Iranians with a view to rally them around the Mullahs thus repressing the opposition movement, at the same time taking the heat off its nuclear programme.

Israel may be facing one of its greatest challenges yet. She is surrounded. Encircled by the fearsome foursome, Hamas, Hezbollah, Syria and the Islamic regime and a weakened Lebanese government, whose democracy would benefit from the exit of Hezbollah, there is no doubt that it will be a formidable challenge.

Meanwhile the Iranian people continue their own challenging battles with the Islamic Republic.

Hope springs eternal.
 
This recent conflict has overshadowed discussions at the G8 Summit and although members have expressed a 'common and unified' position, President Bush has acknowledged that the 'root causes of this conflict must be removed'.

There is a window of opportunity to thwart Tehran's trickery and weaken the Mullahs' stronghold from within thus removing the root causes of the current conflicts.

Regardless of how much the mainstream media has failed to report the true Iranian domestic issues, one must appreciate the Iranian people's fight for freedom and democracy, thus proportionately making the support for democracy advocates all the more effective in their endeavours as well as eliminating the root cause of terrorism.

In such vulnerable times one must ponder on what this could signify for the future of stability in that region and international security.

Everyone's eyes are on the Middle East. Hour by hour news agencies and journalists are reporting to the world. The Iranian people can be easily mobilized if they knew that this time they have the full backing of the free world. Whilst Ahmadinejad has been preparing for his Holy war the Iranian people have been preparing for the demise of this Islamic theocracy.

There are methods and resources. The international community is not completely powerless to support this in some other effective and tactical way. An amalgamation of the external pressure working with the internal force of the people would weaken and undermine the clerical government enormously, whilst alleviating Israel's burden. Despite the Islamic Republic's efforts to try to stop the spread of information, there still remain other methods of communicating to the people and arousing an atmosphere of opportunity. The leaflets dropped from planes in Beirut proved to be an effective way to connect. The Iranian people have been waiting for those leaflets for freedom, for 27 years. Time is short