Great Satan, AKD’s failure, PC roadblock, Easter massacre, and rising Reds

I missed my last column as I was hospitalised with a bad bronchial infection.

- By Dr. Dayan Jayatilleka

The upside of an enforced, unplugged existence and involuntary timeout, is that you get to see things more clearly in the stillness.Much of it is individual: enhanced cherishing of spouse; greater awareness of life’s stages and transitions; magnified appreciation of older cousins and young nephews, political leaders and personal friends, concerned old professors and young former staffers/proteges who offered ready assistance.

But as much of the lucidity is political.

In a long series running through 1979, Lanka Guardian founder-editor, Mervyn de Silva hailed and analysed the Iranian Revolution, featuring Ayatollah Khomeini on the journal's cover several times.

Imam Khomeini, the historic leader of the Iranian Revolution and founder of the new Islamic Revolutionary state, dubbed US imperialism ‘The Great Satan’. Donald Trump-Marco RubioPete Hegseth have doubtless refreshed that definition.

Trump’s USA and Netanyahu’s Israel commenced an unprovoked war of aggression on Iran. They assassinated Ayatollah Khamenei together with his daughter and grandchild. Though the longest ruler, he was no Mao, Ho Chi Minh or Fidel Castro figure: he was not the founder-leader of the Islamic Republic. He was a young participant and product of the Iranian Revolution led by Ayatollah Khomeini against the Pahlavi monarchy (“the American Shah”) and the USA. That revolution has created many more militants and leaders than US-Israel can kill off.

A US-Israeli strike killed 175 schoolgirls in Minab, Southern Iran, as we saw on TV. There were no apologies, explanations or excuses.

The decapitation strike on Khamenei will bring to the fore new leaders and leadership collectives, recomposing and renewing the Revolutionary state, hardening resolve and sowing the dragon’s teeth of hatred among a new generation of Muslims globally towards the US empire.