Homeless in Iran: the metrics to determine a society’s freedom are the number of homeless, the numbers unemployed, the quality of public education & healthcare, the quality of prisons. Apologists for the Iranian theocracy can blither about a US regime-change scenario but the roots of popular protest in Iran are inequality, not US-Israel subversion.

Without direction & leadership, the protests are unlikely to make substantial changes. But in the course of struggle, people learn what was wanting. Some draw the wrong conclusions. Social transformation involving contending forces, some of them armed to the teeth, is a monumental effort. But the irrepressible forces demanding freedom are the hope for all humanity.

(Photo tweeted by the Baghdad Post)