Why Perspective Matters In Iran

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The Weekly Standard has posted an article entitled "On Top of a Volcano" by Reuel Marc Gerecht, a WEEKLY STANDARD contributing editor, and a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.  The article talks about the sudden disappearances of those people who were involved in the recent demonstrations against the election fraud in Iran. 

The article talks about the history of Iran and the fact that the current mullahs have avoided the mistakes the shah made when he was overthrown.  The mullahs controlled a number of different security forces, some possibly of foreign origin, and ordered them to shoot to kill the protestors.  Their reaction to the protests was to tighten their control--they did not leave room for a revolution.  The family of the beautiful young lady who was shot early in the demonstrations was denied a proper funeral service and the government promptly moved them out of the apartment building where they had been living.

The article believes that we are seeing the beginning of Iran's struggle for democracy, but makes no estimate of when that struggle will end.  The article concludes:

The president would be well served to read again The 9/11 Commission Report about Iranian and Lebanese Hezbollah's contact with al Qaeda (see pp. 240-241). This outreach probably started under President Clinton. September 11 and George W. Bush's bellicosity made Khamenei pull back from Sunni jihadists. It's a very good bet that the supreme leader, Ahmadinejad, and Rafsanjani, who has always been a fan of outreach to Sunni militants, are already hunting for foreign partners who hate the United States as much as they do. (There is a reason beyond uranium exports why Tehran loves Hugo Chávez.) Once they are backed by nuclear weapons, it's hard to see what the leaders of the Islamic republic would fear from an American president who avoids the word jihad when describing 9/11 for fear of offending Muslim sensitivities.

President Bush was right to include Iran in what he referred to as "The Axis of Evil".  Iran has not changed.  It's a shame the current US President is not willing to build on the wisdom of his predecessor, but instead is repeating the mistakes of the Jimmy Carter administration. 

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This page contains a single entry by Granny G published on July 12, 2009 1:47 AM.

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