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Something unexpected has begun to surface in the familiar rhythm of Iranian protests: Alongside the chants for freedom and an end to clerical rule, there is now a growing call for U.S. military intervention. What only a year ago would have been considered by many as treason can now openly be heard not only among exiled opposition figures but also from inside the country itself. Whether this sentiment represents a desperate minority, a growing plurality, or merely the loudest echo of despair is difficult to measure. But its very emergence marks a profound shift, suggesting that for some Iranians, desperation now runs so deep that the fear of foreign bombs is being eclipsed by the hopelessness of life in the Islamic Republic.

Perhaps, at first glance, this isn’t surprising. When thousands of people are killed in the span of three days, while the state pulls the plug on the internet and seals the country off from the world’s gaze, calls for outside military intervention may be the natural response to a system that both has grown ever more ruthless and is the root of the Iranian people’s misery.

Something unexpected has begun to surface in the familiar rhythm of Iranian protests: Alongside the chants for freedom and an end to clerical rule, there is now a growing call for U.S. military intervention. What only a year ago would have been considered by many as treason can now openly be heard not only among exiled opposition figures but also from inside the country itself. Whether this sentiment represents a desperate minority, a growing plurality, or merely the loudest echo of despair is difficult to measure. But its very emergence marks a profound shift, suggesting that for some Iranians, desperation now runs so deep that the fear of foreign bombs is being eclipsed by the hopelessness of life in the Islamic Republic.

Perhaps, at first glance, this isn’t surprising. When thousands of people are killed in the span of three days, while the state pulls the plug on the internet and seals the country off from the world’s gaze, calls for outside military intervention may be the natural response to a system that both has grown ever more ruthless and is the root of the Iranian people’s misery.

But if........

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