Morning Joe: A Changed Iran

Stories we're following today:

Iran’s Children of Tomorrow - Roger Cohen in the New York Times [link]

• Must Read: Roger Cohen reporting from the streets of Tehran, "A Supreme Leader Loses His Aura as Iranians Flock to the Streets". [link]
• Whatever happens now, all is changed utterly in Iran. Opacity, a force of the Islamic Republic, has yielded to a riveting transparency in which one side confronts another. The online youth of Iran will not be reconciled to a regime that touts global “ethics” and “justice” while trampling on them at home.
  

Parsing Iran's 'Momentous' Internal Drama - Karim Sadjadpour of the Carnegie [link]

• I truly think something historic is afoot today in Iran. The scale of the protests is unprecedented. The depth of people's sense of injustice and rage is palpable. People are continuing to bravely take to the streets, risking their lives, despite the fact that they've been told the Basij and Revolutionary Guards have been authorized to use force. This has not dissuaded them. The fissures we're seeing amongst revolutionary elites are also unprecedented. It's very difficult to see how the status quo ante could prevail no matter what happens.

As Arms Meeting Looms, Russia Offers Carrot of Sharp Cuts - New York Times [link]

• President Dmitri A. Medvedev said Saturday that Russia was prepared to carry out significant reductions in its nuclear arsenal as part of its continuing arms control negotiations with the United States, which are to culminate here in a summit meeting with President Obama next month.

State nominees on hold? - Foreign Policy's "The Cable" [link]

• A Congressional source says that Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ) put a hold on all State Department nominees earlier this week because he is not satisifed with the information he has been receiving from the administration on the progress of arms control negotiations with Russia.

Pentagon Deploys Experimental Missile Shield to Hawaii - Wired's "Danger Room" [link]

• Ready or not, THAAD and SBX might finally get their first real-world tests, if North Korea makes good on its threat.

A View from the Dark Side

Obama and the Rogues - Wall Street Journal Op-Ed [link]

• President Obama took office loudly promising to be the anti-George W. Bush of foreign policy, vowing to "extend a hand" to adversaries "willing to unclench" their fists. What he has received instead is an education in the reality of global rogues, and how he responds has become a major test of his Presidency.