IRAN: Come the Revolution.

In a development that is potentially as far-reaching as the Iraq war, Iran has been rocked by anti-government demonstrations. Started by students, but taken up now by large segments of the population, the outbreaks have spread beyond Tehran to at least seven other Iranian cities. The clerics have dispatched vigilante Islamist goons to beat, stab, shoot, and defenestrate the protesters. The sketchy accounts of journalists, augmented by the testimony of Iranian bloggers, suggest a see-sawing struggle. A major strike has been called for July 9.

Struggles for freedom inspire free men everywhere. It is also in the interests of the United States to wish Godspeed to the demonstrators. The Iranian mullahcracy is already doing all it can to destabilize Iraq, importing the radical Shi'ism of non-indigenous clerics, though a well-run Iraq should be able to frustrate their schemes. More alarming is the Iranian nuclear program. One atom bomb, as Ayatollah Rafsanjani noted with hope, "has the power to completely destroy Israel." And who knows how many other Israel-sized bits of territory, if slipped to the right folks? Not that a bombless Iran has been a force for good: It is a patron and command center of international terror; along with Syria, it has kept Lebanon a snakepit of terrorist satrapies for more than two decades.

Twenty-four years ago the Ayatollah Khomeini launched the Islamist assault on the West, in his confrontation with the Great Satan. Along the way, he accumulated lesser Satans, including the left-wing novelist Salman Rushdie, against whom he issued a fatwa, which led to worldwide attacks, one of them fatal, on Rushdie's translators and publishers. Khomeini-ism was what James Burnham, a founding editor of this magazine, called "politics as wish." Mystical and irrational, it sought to straighten the crooked timbers of humanity by applying simple creedal guidelines by force. Once the first flush of excitement died down, Iranians discovered that it brought them endless petty harassments, and social and economic stagnation. Their discontent elevated a party of Islamist "reformers," led by President Mohammad Khatami. But Khatami has proven to be unwilling and unable radically to alter the regime, since unelected clerics continue to hold all real power. The Iranian demonstrators loathe him as deeply as they do the diehard mullahs.

The State Department and the CIA cope with this evolving situation by searching for a modus vivendi with the reformers. It is the tale of Bush I and Brent Scowcroft, putting all their chips on Gorbachev, one more time. President George W. Bush recognizes the value of speaking truth to power, by praising the aspirations of the demonstrators. It would be poltroonish to leave it at that. At the same time, we should not-and could not effectively-intervene militarily. (Except to the extent that we have already done so, by toppling the tyrant next door and showing that liberation is possible.) But we could give aid and comfort, as American labor unions gave help to the Polish shipworkers of Solidarity. The CIA should turn its mind to this problem. There are no bigger stakes on the table.