The Long Coup?, Ctd

Scott Lucas responds to Gary Sick:

I think Sick reduces the situation too much to a Khamenei v. Rafsanjani contest. Mir Hossein Mousavi, Mohammad Khatami, and Mehdi Karroubi are far from bystanders or foot soldiers in this battle; ... [Sick also] risks “disappearing” the demonstrators who have reshaped political dynamics since a week ago Monday. ... Rafsanjani, Mousavi, Khatami, and Karroubi depend on a continuing protest and, yes, resistance for leverage in their political challenge. It is very much a hand-in-hand relationship.

So I think we may be past the point where, as Sick puts it, there will be “a negotiated solution in which everyone saves face”. But whether negotiation or confrontation, this is not just (again to borrow Sick’s analogy) a chess match. It is three-dimensional chess, and there are more than two players.