RCW: You were on Fox News last week to discuss Iran, during which you outlined some key considerations. "[The situation] is exacerbated by what is obviously some degree of a split at the top and in the clerics. I think the real question is, how does that split infect the organs of power? Does it get to the police to the military? Where else other than in young people on the streets is this unrest going to be reflected?"

As the situation evolves both in the short term and long term, how should officials from the United States and the international community consider the answers to these questions when making decision on how to deal with Iran?

Gen. Clark: These are still important questions, and what we've seen is basically a continuation of the long-term trend of dissatisfaction by urban elites and young people with a more fundamentalist Ahmadinejad regime.

By the responses that we've seen on the streets over the last week, it would appear that the split did not significantly impact the organs of power of the state. If for example you look back to 1979 and you look at what happened with the revolution in Iran then, the military as an institution dissolved and starting with or indicated by 5000 Iranian air force cadets who just refused to follow orders and basically wouldn't support the government and basically let it collapse. And Khomeini took power. It was the end of the Shah's regime totally.