The Iranian opposition movement took to the streets Thursday in an attempt to co-opt the government’s celebration of the anniversary of the Iranian Revolution. Hundreds of thousands of government supporters gathered in Tehran to mark the anniversary, while police are reported to have clashed with protesters in several sites around the city.

Multiple sites have highlighted the fact that some involved in today’s protests seem disappointed by the opposition’s showing. Some of this seems to be attributed to the fact that Iran’s security forces came out in such numbers. Andrew Sullivan has a good rundown of the ongoing debate.

Tehran Bereau said everyone we have spoken to so far this morning has said about the same thing — in a word or two: “A big anticlimax,” “defeat,” “An overwhelming presence from the other side. People were terrified.” In fact, it appears that the regime was so confident, it did not feel the need to disrupt cellphone or messaging services, or even the internet for that matter.

“Today has been a bust. Lots of people left town, left the country. There was extra security. I was down at Azadi Square, and the regime couldn’t even get the huge crowd they wanted. It didn’t matter though, because the Greens either didn’t show up or authorities were successful in keeping them out.” they added.

It’s still very early to be drawing conclusions from today’s events, as people are still out in the streets. But one thing I’m struck by is just how much the government has been in control today. Sure, they chartered busses and lured tens of thousands to the official government rally with free food, but they have also managed to keep the opposition activities largely on their terms today.

Many commenters are calling the presence of governmental security forces “stifling,” using violence and intimidation to prevent demonstrations from growing beyond relatively small numbers.With over a month to prepare, the government’s security forces were out in full force today, immediately reacting when opposition leaders like Karroubi, Khatami, and Mousavi appeared among the people.

One protester told The Associated Press she had tried to join the demonstrations but soon left in disappointment. “There were 300 of us, maximum 500. Against 10,000 people,” she told an AP reporter outside Iran. She said there were few clashes.

“It means they won and we lost. They defeated us. They were able to gather so many people,” she said. “But this doesn’t mean we have been defeated for good. It’s a defeat for now, today. We need time to regroup.”

Another protester insisted the opposition had come out in significant numbers, but “the problem was that we were not able to gather in one place because they (security forces) were very violent.”

Iran News Now, however, challenges the idea that the protesters were kept in check by the government: How can one say that “the government of Iran managed to keep opposition activities largely on their terms today”?

Under what basis? Hasn’t the fact that the Opposition has used non-violent protests for 8 months to counter the regime’s lies and brutality, to the point that the regime cannot stop the protests, cannot prevent the videos from being broadcast instantaneously to the world, and now has had to seemingly calibrate its brutality to the point that it is starting to try to reduce casualties, actually shown that it is the Greens that have the regime on their terms?