Draped in green banners and wearing surgical masks to hide their faces, the sea of protesters rallying against the perceived improprieties behind Iran’s election is a long-awaited sight, signaling a definite shift away from the brand of political Islam that has gripped Iran for nearly 30 years.

No one of sound mind can accept Iran’s fraudulent election, which declared incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad the victor before the polls even closed. Nonetheless, the international community must allow popular will to determine the legitimate leader of Iran without burdening the protesters with a litany of American desires.

What makes these protests – and hopefully an impending regime change – so striking is the very absence of American intervention. The demonstrators, heeding the call of opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi, are disgruntled citizens who are no longer willing to accept their government’s claims of divine mandate. They are not being supplied weapons by the CIA or influenced by the American military. Their weapons are their weary voices, battered bodies and growing numbers.

Meanwhile, President Barack Obama’s handling of the Iranian protests is facing ire from many of the neoconservatives who promoted the invasion of Iraq. Facing mounting pressure from Republicans, including Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and his lackey Sen. Lindsay Graham (R-S.C.), Obama’s approach to the ongoing crisis remains remarkably restrained. The president is undoubtedly sympathetic to the reformists, yet is fully aware of the repercussions that his words might have on the fate of the demonstrators. He is standing in solidarity with the protesters while respecting Iranian sovereignty and fine-tuning his stance for future negotiations with whoever emerges as the victor.

A more zealous approach would provide Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei with the type of anti-American fodder he needs to quell the uprising. Obama’s measured response to the crisis hinders the clerics’ ability to invoke anti-Americanism for their own benefit, placing the onus on Iran’s Guardian Council and the mullahs.

By demanding a tougher line from the White House, McCain is demonstrating why he wasn’t elected president. Rather than indulging in narcissistic politics, Obama is displaying a chess player’s mentality in his foreign policy while his detractors are playing checkers.

Those who misconstrue Obama’s cautious temperament as a weakness are ignoring America’s convoluted history with Iran. Beginning with the overthrow of the democratically elected Mohammad Mossadeq in 1953, America’s foreign policy with Iran consists of one colossal blunder after another. Supporting the repressive Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, instigating ethnic unrest, ignoring the rise of the Islamic Revolution in 1979 – the U.S. has routinely appeared aloof or acted against the will of the Iranian people.

With 70 percent of the population under 30, Iran is ripe for a new progressive revolution. A huge dissident movement, nurtured by a strong, youthful middle class, needs to be the face of political change in the Middle East – not the American military. The thousands of students converging in the streets of Tehran understand the intricacies of Iranian politics and how to demand reform from their leaders. Individually, the protesters may be weak, but they represent a force capable of bringing a real democracy to the region when they come together in solidarity.

Meddling in Iranian affairs will only deprive the protesters of their moment, which is finally flourishing after years of modest reforms from moderates like former President Mohammad Khatami.

When the dust settles in Iran, the theocratic regime may still be in power, but the people of Iran will have unleashed something that use to be beyond their reach: change. Every time the protesters are bludgeoned by Ahmadinejad’s baton-wielding goons, they get stronger.

The blood-stained streets are theirs. The tear-soaked clothes are theirs. This is their revolution.