Iran: March 20, 2003

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While Iran is officially against the US invasion of Iraq, most Iranians look forward to Saddam Hussein getting tossed out of power, and put on trial or killed. Saddam invaded Iran in 1980, sparking off a war that killed over half a million Iranians and allowed to the Iranian religious conservatives to impose an Islamic Republic instead of a secular democracy (as was originally promised when the revolt against the Shah succeeded in the late 1970s.) But on the street, religious conservatives believe that the US may invade Iran next, and most younger Iranians (half the population is under 25) hope that the conservatives are right. Iranians are becoming increasingly resigned to the prospect of a civil war to break the veto the Islamic conservatives have over the legislature and government.