Iran

Hemreş sat at his guard post in the mountains. Nothing was happening. Nothing had happened for months. He looked back inside to the radio post, manned by his squadmates, and then back across the landscape, which, admittedly, was beautiful in the rising sun. He made his way over to a rock, and began to take a piss while watching the sun rise. I would describe this, but I will spare you the description. Once he was finished, he made his way back to the radio shack and picked up a newspaper.

Ethnic Tensions Intensify Across The Nation it said.

Out of curiosity, he looked over to his Persian squadmates, and then began reading, concerned for his fellow Kurds.

By the time the sun was fully in the sky, he did not want to be an attack dog for the Persian Republicans anymore.

Hemreş deserted his post in the middle of the night, stealing the guns of his squadmates and running through the mountains. He would run for a week, hitching the occasional ride on a wagon, a train, or a truck, before he finally made it back to the Kurdish heartland.

Their causes differed, but he was just the first of massive defections and desertions from the army by ethnic minorities, monarchists, socialists, Sunnis, some taking equipment with them, some only getting away with the skin on their backs, and an unfortunate few being shot and killed, becoming martyrs who sometimes inspired even loyal persians to want to get out.

Moreover, all across the country, Kurds, Arabs, Lurs, Sunnis, Socialists, Monarchists, they did not unite to topple the Persian Hegemony, but they all gathered and organized, and they all cried out against the republic and it's wasteful ways, throwing away the lives of their own citizens in a war.

Unless Iran can perform a miracle, it would seem it could very well collapse into civil war in just a few hours.

The time for miracles has ended. All we can do now is watch who moves first.