The regime change crowd is using an old script

Cibolo, Texas: I read with interest the administration’s enthusiastic suggestion that the demise of Iran’s latest supreme leader presents a golden opportunity for the Iranian people to “take back” their country and stroll briskly toward democracy. History, however, is not quite so breezy.

When Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini died in 1989, many observers predicted a turning point. What followed was not a town hall meeting and a crash course in civics, but another ayatollah. Revolutions, it seems, have a way of replacing crowns with turbans rather than ballots. The idea that the mere absence of one religious strongman will cause Jeffersonian democracy to bloom overnight is touching — almost Hallmark-worthy. But governance is not a light switch. You don’t flip from theocracy to “The Federalist Papers” in a long weekend. For decades before clerical rule, Iran endured absolute monarchy under the shah. Autocracy has been the political language for generations. Expecting a population raised under monarchs and mullahs to improvise a constitutional republic on short notice may be less strategy and more wishful thinking.

Of course, one hopes for freedom and self-determination for the Iranian people. But hope is not policy, and slogans are not institutions. If democracy were that easily installed, we’d export it in flat-pack boxes with an Allen wrench and a set of instructions. Perhaps a little humility — and a glance at history — would serve us better than premature celebration. John Di Genio

Tomkins Cove, N.Y.: It was repeatedly stated that if I voted for Kamala Harris, we would become involved in another forever war, this time with Iran. Well, I........

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