Iran's crackdown quiets streets but not anger

‘No one to lead us’
There also is very little stomach among demonstrators to put themselves on the line without a clear leader and goal.

Mousavi has not stepped up in that role. Despite his momentary flash as the reformist icon, he always has been a man of the system since serving as prime minister for much of the 1980s. He said he has no interest in directly battling the Islamic status quo.

The question now looms: Does anyone? No one with any national credentials has offered to take the baton from Mousavi. Instead, the aftermath has tapered to internal political intrigue with most eyes on former President Hashemi Rafsanjani, who is both fabulously rich and deeply influential.

Rafsanjani heads a cleric-run group, the Assembly of Experts, that has the power to remove the supreme leader. Such an act is still considered improbable, but it could give him considerable leverage over Khamenei — who has the last word in all major policy decisions. Rafsanjani is considered a moderate who could see advantages in President Barack Obama's offer for groundbreaking dialogue.

But the protesters of the past month seem left out in the cold.

"We have no one to lead us," said a 30-year-old man from Isfahan who took part in the demonstrations. He spoke on condition of anonymity because of fear of reprisals.

"People are angry and afraid," he continued. "They are afraid of the future and angry because they failed to achieve change with their ballots."

The legitimacy of the Iran's election system has been reduced to a punch line on Twitter jokes and blogs for many Mousavi supporters.

"Anyone can make one mistake," says a message next to a calendar page of Ahmadinejad's election in 2005.

"But only fools repeat their mistake" — next to the date of the June 12 election.

Long and simmering opposition
The next moves are anyone's guess. Some experts who have studied civil unrest movements, however, foresee a long and simmering opposition that could splinter into various forms of dissent — such as seeking more political allies, appeals to Germany and other Western nations with financial stakes in Iran and nonviolent disobedience such as sit-ins and general strikes.

"In order to succeed, Mousavi's followers almost certainly need to take their protests and opposition activities outside Tehran into other Iranian cities where they can outflank security organizations," said Eric Rosenbach, executive director at Harvard University's Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs.

A well-known Iranian poet, Simin Behbahani, offered verse that touched both the sense of smoldering resentment and the threats that it's not going to fade.

One of the lines say: "Stop this extravagance, this reckless throwing of my country to the wind."

It ends:

"You may wish to have me burned or decide to stone me.

"But in your hand, match or stone will lose their power to harm me."

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