Bad news for the Iranian regime from Qatar

Tyrannies fall when opponents shed their fear of them. Opponents tend to shed their fear when the soldiers and police officers charged with crushing opponents become conflicted about doing so. That doesn’t seem to have happened much yet in Iran, but there are reports of it occurring in a few instances.

Soccer players don’t enforce the edicts of tyrannical regimes. However, they are often drawn from the same class of people as those who do. And like those who do the enforcing, they typically benefit from special privileges. That privileged status helps keep them in line.

The current Iranian team has not been kept in line. That’s bad news for the regime.

And, of course, it’s far from the only bad news.