One of the things I keep seeing on lefty blogs—particularly Nico’s, the one I’m following at HuffPo for Iran news—is statements like this:
Obama’s Iran policy. Americans approve of it 52 percent vs. 36 percent who disapprove, according to a new Washington Post/ABC poll
Sully is using those numbers to crow that he, and Obama, are right not to call for Iranian freedom in stronger terms.
Which brings me back to something I learned a very long time ago: Just because everyone says you should do something, doesn’t make it right.
Morality should always trump popularity.
By the way, it took the UN a week to make a statement on Iran. Imagine how quickly Ban Ki-Moon would have spoken up had there been Palestinian protests in Israel.
If Obama were full-throatedly supporting the protesters and criticizing the regime, would Andy be criticizing him for being too incautious?
Really, if you want to play both sides and still have a chance to negotiate if the revolution fails (not that I think that’s a wise choice anyway) the administration should be playing good-cop, bad-cop. Someone (maybe Biden) should be a loose canon, wearing “Remember Neda” button and openly hoping for a change in government, while Hillary reassures the Mullahs that murdering their citizens in the street in no way affects our hopes for closer ties, and Obama in the middle, but showing more support for the protesters than he has. And perhaps Bibi could point out that a successful transition of power which resulted in a cessation of the nuclear program would mean Israel can stop trying to decide when the best time to bomb them would be.
That’s a bit too subtle for the “realists” now in office, Eric. And can you see motormouth Biden not blowing the whole thing with some idiotic gaffe?
These clowns have hitched their wagon to the star of negotiating with the mullahs. Democracy would make things messy, if an Iranian government had to take into account what the people might think. Bad enough that the Obama Administration might have to take into account what the American people think. They really want to get away from that, one reason for nominating Harold Koh as the legal advisor to Foggy Bottom.
The problem for them, and the reason I put realist in quotes above, is that there is nothing they can offer the mullahs as a carrot, and no stick short of war strong enough to threaten with, to turn the mullahs from their search for nukes and missiles. Nukes are their ticket to the Big Boys’ Club, their key to the top table of international power, the key to an immense increase of their prestige and influence. With them they can spread terror and force appeasement all over the world. Nukes will enable them to achieve their dearest wishes, genocide of the Jews and imperial expansion throughout the region. And against these glittering prizes, what can Obama offer them as an alternative?