Please, please let this often well-meaning but always clumsy democracy have the wisdom and the foresight to show restraint, to have the deft touch we have so often lacked. Please. Iran has many, many people who are desperate for democracy, who are progressive, who believe in the liberal tradition, who want to reduce the role of religion in their politics, and who want new, legitimate leadership. But crucially, very many of them are also deeply critical of the United States. I don’t want to fight the old battles about the US’s role in the reinstallation of the Shah, or our culpability in the Khomeini revolution. It would feel somehow vulgar to do that, right now, in the face of what has happened and could happen. But many of the Iranian people, secular and religious, have a deep sense of grievance with the United States. To “assist” the unrest that perhaps could become revolution or reform would threaten to strangle it in the crib.
This is the opportunity to demonstrate that we are a wise nation as well as a powerful one. This is our opportunity to show the world, and the world’s Muslims, that we have learned the lessons of the recent past. This is our opportunity to prove that we understand that democracy cannot be enforced or bullied into being. Let us show that we understand the power of example, and the power of restraint. Let this be the moment where our belief in democracy and liberal values is not enacted, but embodied. Please. This is the time.
Fnord 
Rose Woodhouse 
Kyle Cupp 
Russell Saunders 
Nob Akimoto
{ 29 comments }
I have no idea what the Muslim must do to explain to you that they have no desire to share the planet with the infidel. Kissing their ass is a useless, demeaning, act of humiliation.
Lol Freddie, you forgot Operation Ajax where American CIA operatives colluded in the assassination of a freely elected Iranian president.
I think Obama is actually, bright enough to stay the fuck out.
Bob Cheeks…..I am a practicing Sufi.
In’shallah you will never have to kiss my ass.
The students that fuel the Green Revolution are unanimously devout– green is the color of al-Islam.
Freddie wrote”
“I don’t want to fight the old battles about the US’s role in the reinstallation of the Shah….”
Isn’t this Operation Ajax?
And…..half the country is under thirty.
Patience.
Don’t worry: this time, the bodybuilders are all paid members of the secret police and will be too expensive for the CIA to corrupt. Lessons of ’53 well-learned.
Ajax was only a small part of our much broader meddling with reinstalling the Shah against the will of the Iranian people.
I just thought Freddie should mention it by name, because of the infamy.
Perhaps you should start posting as “Freddie.” If you did “Freddie” would clearly make the points you think desirable.
‘Bob Cheeks…..I am a practicing Sufi.
In’shallah you will never have to kiss my ass.’
Thank you sweetie, I appreciate that!
freddie go read friedman’s column in todays times.
richard, are you referring to the “Winds of Change?” piece of drivel dated 6/13/09?
Friedmam is a charlatan of the first order. Anyone who still has any faith in his output has a either a very short memory, or a short history with Tommy. The man has zero credibility. He backed the invasion of Iraq way back when and has been trying, unsuccessfully, to retrieve his withered balls from that pier. He’ll say anything to rescue his nonexistent reputation. You might as well site David Broder. Broder, Friedman, hacks.
So now Friedman sees a new day for the Middle East? I might have believed it if he would have published this six months ago, hell six weeks ago. The fool, Friedman, condemned himself with his own words, read them and weep, “Twenty years ago, I wrote a book about the Middle East, and recently I was thinking of updating it with a new introduction. It was going to be very simple — just one page, indeed just one line: ‘Nothing has changed.’”
I’ll tell you how “nothing has changed,” Tom Friedman still has no fucking clue.
Freddie…..what about this?
We should be ashamed if we don’t speak to freedom in Iran — loudly and clearly. To take the measured, political approach is cowardly. I’m not saying we should intervene, but we should not be afraid to promote freedom from tyranny.
But if we actively voice support for those revolting, Mike, it plays directly into the hands of the status quo. We need to support democracy, and in the specific situation of Iran that means not undercutting the cause of democracy with our massive unpopularity there.
I don’t know, Freddie. Actually the American people rate fairly high amongst the Iranian people. I think they’re counting on vocal support – but not military support or wild, unproductive statements about axis of evil etc.
This is stupid. Could Lieberman be anymore moronic?
Sanctions hurt the population and empower Nejad’s anti-US meme-war.
BULLSHYTT
Obama opened a door for dar al-Islam…..it is our duty to observe and not to look away and let the Iranians reform their own country.
It is our duty NOT TO MEDDLE this time.
Freddie…..I think the right doesn’t understand the students they are expressing extreme solidarity with ARE ACTUAL DEVOUT MUSLIMS! Haha, some of them go to maddrassa even, and the uni students are uniformly shi’ia.
This is going to make all their heads explode when they realize it.
Sweet!
You misunderstand me, as does matoka with a patronizing assumption of the “right”‘s naivete — what I am saying is that when we make statements, we support freedom in general, however that may manifest itself in any particular country — there are no “sides” we should take, only a full-throated embrace of freedom vs tyranny and irrational beliefs.
“Man, when matoko_chan realizes that the “democratists” she’s defending don’t, in fact, believe in a woman’s right to control her own sexual destiny, her head is going to explode.”
Jaybird, conservatives don’t believe I should control my own sexual destiny……..what is the difference?
;)
And now, I understand the right’s naivete purrfectly.
You twodigit tools believed in the Bush Doctrine, aka the Epic Fail of the Manifest Destiny of Judeoxian Democracy in MENA.
Are there any words in the English language sweeter to the tongue or more musical to the ear than “You People”?
I like, You twodigit tools myself.
;)
I, personally, prefer it when my opponents do not merely disagree, but are actively wrong. More than that, I prefer that they hold their viewpoints despite knowing that there is something wrong, but when they have made the moral decision to rely on lies and/or data that they know is incomplete because it fits with the view they want to impose on the weak.
It’s much easier than arguing against people who merely have reached different conclusions after looking at the data themselves. That, you see, takes work and, occasionally, requires that one re-evaluate one’s own position.
I prefer, ekshually, to argue with people on the same side of the bellcurve of IQ with me as it is pointless to attempt to persuade someone without the basic intellectual substrate.
Man cannot acquire what he cannot use.
I prefer arguing with those in possession of some humility and not wholly bound to their pride. Being right is useless without being able to argue. And to argue well requires empathy.
I prefer salami on rye with just a toooooooooouch of dijon mustard and some provolone, or I did when I was able to eat sandwiches. But that’s just me.
Wasn’t the relevant topic here what posture the US ought to strike in regards to the current ongoings in Iran?
I think that there is a relevant distinction that I haven’t yet heard made between the US government and the US people. When it comes to what the US government should do, I’d be inclined to agree with Freddie. But when it comes to what citizens of the US should do, I’d be inclined to agree with Mike Farmer.
We tend to speak about reactions to various geopolitical events in very monolithic terms, which I can’t help seeing as unhelpful. After all, we are talking about democracy, here.
The US government should be very, very gentle. For some reason, the US does not have a good reputation over there and anything the government attempts over there will be seen as either Israel pulling our strings, us deliberately trying to help keep the extremists in power so as to keep the Neocons in power because if Iran becomes a democracy, they become useless, or some other “this is what they say, but they don’t really *MEAN* it!” situation.
As citizens, however, I think that we could do good without doing harm by sending whatever moral support we possibly could. A “tweet” here, a post there, a comment there. We wish them all the best and they have our moral support.
But when it comes to Iran itself, this is something that the Persian people *MUST* do themselves (or overwhelmingly so) lest it turn into yet another mess that the Americans created over there.
I suspect that the Persians are strong enough to do this themselves. They deserve to have done this themselves.
Of course, America stay outta the Middle East. I’m sure The Great Provider will withdraw troops shortly. Let the Ayrabs kill each other and old Ben’s gotta do what Ben’s gotta do….
“The eastern world it is explodin’
violence flarin’, bullets loadin’
In the end all ‘you people’ will have your ‘come to Jesus’ moment!
My empathy has been exhausted by stupidity and partisanship.
Even the greatest
loveempathy in the world can wear out, Scarlett.Freddie requests, Obama delivers:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/8104362.stm
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