Get the Ricochet app
Ricochet will work fine in a browser on your mobile devices, but for the best experience please download our app.
With the onset of this latest Iranian war, a vicious branch of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard (IRGC) called the Basij has been receiving a great deal of attention. They are every bit as brutal as the IRGC, and are deeply ideological:
Members require less training than those in more regular divisions and are easily mobilized, and so they are often the first of the armed forces to respond to unrest. The Basij consists primarily of young working-class men (or boys under 18) who have yet to begin a career, marry, or have children.
Basij is officially called the Organisation for Mobilisation of the Oppressed, and has its origins in the 1979 revolution:
Established in 1979 as Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini called for a ‘20 million army’ to defend the revolution, in 1981 it was incorporated into the Revolutionary Guard (IRGC), which Australia listed as a state sponsor of terrorism last year. Initially, its members were deployed in the Iran-Iraq War, suffering heavy casualties as they were used in human wave attacks designed to overwhelm enemy troops and minefields through sheer weight of numbers.
So the Basij are practically children, easily influenced by their officers, and fearless in facing danger.
The Basij have been assigned to infiltrate the Iranian protestors, arresting and killing them, and although the numbers can’t be confirmed, the estimates are that 20,000 to 40,000 people have been killed. No one knows how many Basij there are, but the numbers have been estimated in the millions. (The current Iranian population is estimated to be nearly 93 million.)
On Tuesday, Israel announced it had killed General Gholamreza Soleimani, head of the Basij force since 2019. Three hundred Basij commanders were also killed, along with General Ghasem Qoreishi, Basij deputy commander. Israel has been persistent in going after the Basij and their facilities:
The Israeli military has been relentlessly bombing the feared Basij militia's checkpoints and military facilities in Tehran to weaken the regime's security apparatus that it uses to brutally crack down on any protests and dissent. Multiple social media accounts observed by Euronews' Persian service over the last week claim that ordinary Iranian citizens film Basij checkpoints or military hideouts, posting locators, photos or videos on social media.
The killing of Soleimani and the behind-the-scenes assistance of the Iranian people are shocking and encouraging developments.
Will the Iranian people consider uprising again? Time will tell.
Discussion (15)
To read this bio, please join Ricochet.
Think of the IRGC as the regime's counterpart of the Nazis' SS, the Schutz Staffel. The IRGC is the regime's elite protection squad. They are well disciplined and have better resources.
Think of the Basij as the regime's counterpart of the Nazis' SA, the Sturm Abteilung. The Basij are their storm troopers, their street fighters. They executed the Crystal Night, and they executed tens of thousands of Iranians just this year.
To read this bio, please join Ricochet.
Imagine an ascendant supermajority democrat party arming legions of pronoun aficionados and gang bangers and encouraging them to oppress their perceived enemies (us).
If you read Kurt Schlichter’s Kelly Turnbull novels he envisions a civil war where the blue states have done exactly what I said above.
To read this bio, please join Ricochet.
That sounds like a great analogy, Barfly.
CHARTER MEMBER
To read this bio, please join Ricochet.
To read this bio, please join Ricochet.
That's great news!
You're seeing five of 15 comments. Sign in, or join for just $5 per month, to read them all and add your own.