On Krauthammer, democracy and Iran’s future
First, let me get this off my chest.
In his column today, Charles Krauthammer accuses President Obama of being “afraid of meddling. Afraid to take sides between the head-breaking, women-shackling exporters of terror — and the people in the street yearning to breathe free.”
In what he intends to be a fire-breathing defense of democratic yearning, Krauthammer opens the column with this paragraph:
“Millions of Iranians take to the streets to defy a theocratic dictatorship that, among its other finer qualities, is a self-declared enemy of America and the tolerance and liberties it represents. The demonstrators are fighting on their own, but they await just a word that America is on their side.
Really? They do?
Because my impression is that the Iranians aren’t waiting for anything, let alone for some word of support from an American president. It seems to me they are putting their lives, fortunes, freedom and futures on the line as Iranians fighting for their version of Iran. They neither need nor want the approval of the U.S. government.
To the contrary, I have read hundreds of the Twitter messages coming out of Iran. They are frightening and heroic and heartbreaking and inspiring. But I have not seen a single message bewailing an alleged lack of American support for their cause. Nor have I seen Iranian expatriate groups making such demands. To the contrary, explicit U.S. government support for the rebellion would help kill it.
Yet that’s what Krauthammer demands. He claims the Iranian people “await” word from Obama but cites not a single statement from an Iranian to support that claim. Nor does he make any effort to explain just how words from Obama are supposed to help the Iranian people.
Instead, seizing an excuse to attack a president he despises, he advocates a position that is guaranteed to undercut the brave people he claims to support.
I think that’s vile, excuse the strong language.
In Iran itself, events seem to be headed toward either the tragic suppression of dissent or, much less likely, the overthrow of the current regime. A showdown looms, and it may not be pretty.
TEHRAN, Iran – Iran’s supreme leader said Friday that the country’s disputed presidential vote had not been rigged, sternly warning protesters of a crackdown if they continue massive demonstrations demanding a new election.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei sided with hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and offered no concessions to the opposition. He effectively closed any chance for a new vote by calling the June 12 election an “absolute victory.”
The speech created a stark choice for candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi and his supporters: Drop their demands for a new vote or take to the streets again in blatant defiance of the man endowed with virtually limitless powers under Iran’s constitution.
That’s a clearly drawn line in the sand. Step over it, and there’s real trouble, the ayatollah warned. I suspect he means it. So the question becomes, how far are Moussavi and his allies prepared to push it? Part of their calculation has to be the fact that if they give up the street protests, they give up everything. In a closed system such as Iran’s, they have no other effective means by which to express dissent and push for change. Many are already so committed and exposed that they will become targets to be jailed or worse in the weeks to come. In other words, they don’t have much to lose at this point. That makes them dangerous to the regime.
A piece by Neil MacFarquhar in today’s New York Times explains the stakes well:
“The daytime protests across the Islamic republic have been largely peaceful. But Iranians shudder at the violence unleashed in their cities at night, with the shadowy vigilantes known as Basijis beating, looting and sometimes gunning down protesters they tracked during the day…..
“It is the special brigades of the Revolutionary Guards who right now, especially at night, trap young demonstrators and kill them,” said Mohsen Sazegara, an Iranian exile who helped write the charter for the newly formed Revolutionary Guards in 1979 when he was a young aide to Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. “That is one way the regime avoids the responsibility for these murders. It can say, ‘We don’t know who they are.’ ”
The death toll now stands at 13, said Shahram Kholdi, a graduate student at the University of Manchester in England, who is building a Web site to track all killings…..
MacFarquhar, the writer of that piece, coincidentally has a new book on the shelves, ““The Media Relations Department of Hizbollah Wishes You a Happy Birthday,” recounting his upbringing in Libya and his 13 years as a correspondent in the Middle East. According to a review of the book in today’s Times, MacFarquhar “writes most passionately about the activists and intellectuals struggling to liberalize their societies and Islam as a whole.”
In the book, MacFarquhar recounts what happened in 2005, when Secretary of State Condi Rice made an important speech announcing a new era of U.S. foreign policy.
“For 60 years my country, the United States, pursued stability at the expense of democracy in this region here in the Middle East, and we achieved neither,” she said at the American University in Cairo. “Now we are taking a different course. We are supporting the democratic aspirations of all people.”
Krauthammer joined in celebrating that new approach, and Rice’s speech encouraged reformers in countries such as Egypt to take chances in pursuit of freedom that they might not otherwise have taken. As the NYT review points out, it did not end well:
“In late 2005, a small group of Egyptian judges challenged the undemocratic regime of President Hosni Mubarak. The United States stood by silently while Mr. Mubarak crushed public protests, and the Arab world understood, correctly, that Washington had given up on democracy or had never meant it in the first place.”
Krauthammer’s own newspaper harshly condemned the lack of action by the Bush administration.
“The last days of Egypt’s month-long parliamentary election were shameful,” the Washington Post edit board wrote. “Government security forces and gangs of thugs from the ruling National Democratic Party blockaded access to dozens of polling sites where opposition candidates were strong. In several cases they opened fire on citizens who tried to vote; 10 people were reported killed….”
And as the editorial pointed out, the Bush administration’s response was more or less silence, with a White House spokesman expressing “serious concerns about the path of political reform in Egypt.”
“Serious concerns.” The administration had “serious concerns.” I bet that really worried Mubarak.
Yet after the Bush administration’s pulled its “bait and switch” on Egyptian dissidents, first promising its support and then falling silent when they acted on that support, Krauthammer, the self-styled defender of brave rebels everywhere, wrote not a word of criticism.
Two years earlier, a similar but more egregious series of events played out. In October 2003, an “election” was held in Azerbaijan in which Ilham Aliyev was elected with 80 percent of the vote to replace his father, Heidar Alieyev, a former KGB general who had run Azerbaijan since the days it was still part of the Soviet Union.
As in Iran, street protests were brutally suppressed, opposition figures tossed in prison and opposition press muzzled. And yet, shortly after the fake election, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld arrived in Baku to congratulate Aliyev on his victory and express support. When Rumsfeld was asked about electoral fraud, he replied by saying: “The United States has a relationship with this country. We value it. And certainly we intend to continue that military-to-military relationship with the new administration.”"
As the Washington Post editorial board noted, “Over the last decade Mr. Aliyev and his father granted billions in contracts to such companies as BP-Amoco, ChevronTexaco and ExxonMobil. He also has supported a $3 billion pipeline that is to carry oil from the Caspian to a port in Turkey. According to Mr. Aliyev, Mr. Bush once pronounced him an honorary citizen of Texas in appreciation of his support for American oil companies. When he was installed by his dying father as prime minister last August, the president quickly sent him a congratulatory letter.”
I’ve gone back and looked. Krauthammer said not one damn word about the stolen elections in Azerbaijan, about the brutal repression of protesters, including torture of many of the more than 1,000 people arrested, or about the Bush administration’s embrace of the dictatorial government shortly after hopes for democracy in Azerbaijan had been crushed.
Not one damn word.
The dissidents in Iran do deserve our support and most of all our respect. And that respect requires that we do not treat them and their dreams as weapons in our own domestic political disputes.
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72 comments Add your comment
I Report :-) You Whine :-(
June 19th, 2009
3:36 pm
Really? They do?
Really, they do-
President Obama’s speech was good; he says that he will support us. He also said that nations must decide the fate of their countries by themselves. I agree with him, but now we don’t have any power to change the situation, so we need help and attention.
We ask the president not to accept this coup d’etat.
By Kaveh from Tabriz
Obozo is a coward and that is a good thing. Because if he ushered freedom and democracy into the biggest antagonist of terror in the Middle East, the Republicans would be history.
Mrs. Godzilla
June 19th, 2009
3:37 pm
Krauthammer – I believe there is something deeply spiritually wrong with that man. I pity him.
DB, Gwinnettian
June 19th, 2009
3:44 pm
Fabulous takedown, Jay. I might have to link to it elsewhere on the Intertubes.
I believe there is something deeply spiritually wrong with that man. I pity him.
Puh-leeze. He’s a classic Village insider; he’s paid seven figures a year to slop the hogs.
What he writes is truly monstrous, but if it weren’t he doing this, they’d just get some better behaved version of Andie to do this neocon, military-industrial-complex-friendly crap.
rcs
June 19th, 2009
3:44 pm
You make a valid point Jay. If Krauthammer was silent on Azerbaijan why is he demanding a reaction now?
Mrs. Godzilla
June 19th, 2009
3:46 pm
DB
I feel the same way about andy…..$$$$$$$ is nice, I like it to be sure, but my soul is worth more than 7 figures and DB so is yours.
Dusty
June 19th, 2009
3:46 pm
Uh oh Bookman,
I was going right along with you in supporting Obama’s lack of “meddling” in Iranian politics as the right thing to do.
But then you accused Krauhammer of “..seizing an excuse to attack a President he despises..”. It certainly takes one to know one.
You, Bookman, attacked President Bush for eight years because you despised him.
Tucker attacked Bush for eight years because she despised him.
Luckovich drew ugly humiliating cartoons of Bush for eight years because he despised him.
And you want to point a finger at Krauthammer? Forget it. You’ve done it too long to admonish someone else.
ByteMe
June 19th, 2009
3:49 pm
I’ve gone back and looked. Krauthammer said not one damn word about the stolen elections
Jay, are you stalking him?
Dusty
June 19th, 2009
3:52 pm
Mz godzilla,
Was there something “spiritually wrong” with you when you posted dozens of anti-Bush comments almost every day under the id IN THE NEWS?
I guess liberals had “open season” on Bush but saying something not so nice about Obama is verbotten. Double standard, my friend.
RW-(the original)
June 19th, 2009
3:55 pm
The dissidents in Iran do deserve our support
And saying nothing is the way to show that support? Interesting.
I tend to agree with you that Obama not saying anything to support the protesters is the right way to go, but probably for a different reason. We know Obama wouldn’t lift a finger to help them, but they might not.
josef nix
June 19th, 2009
3:56 pm
As y’all know I’m no great fan of Eva Peron’s love child, but so far he has done what appears for now to be the right thing on Iran. The less said, the better. It is already clear that we want Iran to liberalize. We have already made it clear we want the Iranians to take matters into their own hands. They are. They don’t want us to intervene. It’s not in their interest nor ours.
Normal
June 19th, 2009
3:58 pm
Dusty, I seem to remember that President Bush earned that disrespect…in spades, if only because he was just Cheney’s puppet.
———–
President Obama hasn’t been in office long enough to be hated so by the likes of Brutus, up there, unless it’s something deeper…racial perhaps…Just sayin’
DB, Gwinnettian
June 19th, 2009
3:59 pm
Dusty, have you completely forgotten the mostly free ride Bush enjoyed from mainstream liberal (ha!) media punditocracy the first coupla years in his term?
I’m thinking you have.
gawingnut
June 19th, 2009
4:02 pm
It’s intersting that Jay must assasinate the character of an award winning writer to make his point. Without someone to demonize, Bookman is a hollow log, the tree that fell in the forest that no one heard. I’m surpirsed that the Iranian issue gets any press at all from a card-carrying socialist like Jay. Slow news day, I guess.
getalife
June 19th, 2009
4:08 pm
The last people we should listen to are neocon warmongers. They lost.
Bad people with bad history.
Failed Americans.
Obama did the right thing because he knows it is fixed. We broke Iraq and should leave Iran alone.
Bad to the Bone
June 19th, 2009
4:12 pm
Krauthammer should get together some of his fellow meddlers such as Limbaugh, Gingrich, Cheney, Rumsfeld, etc., and strap on their little pop guns and hop on board the next flight to Iran. Get along, little doggies.
@@
June 19th, 2009
4:13 pm
Somewhere around the 1:53 mark they seem to be asking for our support — assuming that we’re considered “People of the World”. Krauthammer seems to be the kinda guy they’re looking for.
Dang, jay! You really seem to hate Krauthammer.
Not one damn (nice) word to say about the guy.
Mrs. Godzilla
June 19th, 2009
4:13 pm
Dusty
Difference is: Bush deserved it.
@@
June 19th, 2009
4:14 pm
Oops! forgot to mention
When Obama said that Mousavi was no different, it was kinda like telling the protesters they were foolish to believe.
That’s just my opinion.
Normal
June 19th, 2009
4:18 pm
What I like the most about the demostrations in Iran, is the Martin Luther King feeling it gives me. The “We Shall Overcome” attitude of the protesters. King proved there is no real answer to a non voilent protest and it makes the government look bad to the eyes of the world when they resort to violence. No, President Obama is doing the correct thing, and the rabid section of the GOP doesn’t like that, hence, Krauthammer’s tirade. It’s a no brainer and President Obama has a brain…Just sayin’
getalife
June 19th, 2009
4:22 pm
@@,
He was telling us he punked the libs but the change candidate will punk the Iranians too.
The establishment will win in both countries.
Kamchak
June 19th, 2009
4:24 pm
Scylla and Charybdis
If Obama does nothing–it’s wrong.
If Obama does anything–it’s meddling.
Trying to please a puffed up, pusillanimous, pinhead like Chuckiepoo Krauthammer is a no win situation. Ignore the dipwad.
huckels
June 19th, 2009
4:26 pm
thanks jay, for a refreshing article; my take is that krauthammer wants to take down obama and thereby strengthen netanyahu
ByteMe
June 19th, 2009
4:30 pm
From reader over at TPM:
Isn’t it funny that conservatives who used to complain about Obama’s use of rhetorical powers as “just words” now think his relative caution in speaking out about Iran is a deep betrayal of everything American?
Normal
June 19th, 2009
4:31 pm
Josef Your post below…a rebuttal, if you will. Gotta go home now, UPS just got here. Have a great weekend y’all and…make love, not war…just sayin’
Tom
June 19th, 2009
4:33 pm
Krauthammer has always been an ugly, bitter, hateful little man. Filled to the brim with reptilian Repug thoughts, ideas, theocratic goonery.
Could be that he and his kind might be helped by a turpentine enema.
gawingnut
June 19th, 2009
4:33 pm
Krauthammer won’t have to “take down Obama.” Obama will do it on his own. The guy is so self absorbed he can’t see the forest for the trees. He President of the United States, not King of the World like he thinks. This guy will make Jimmy Carter look brilliant when it’s all over. But then, most of you “kids” weren’t around when JC tried to destroy the US. Liberals think history was last Tuesday. You’re in for a shock. It may not come next week, so it’ll test your attention span.
HG3
June 19th, 2009
4:37 pm
Let’s see…we doubtlessly should intervene in the developing civil war in Iran. I’m certain the result would be a rousing success — such as Vietnam…or…Korea…or Iraq. Oh. Wait a minute…
Face it: There is now an entire generation of Americans who never faced a draft into a foreign civil war, who did not see their friends, sons, brothers and fathers come back in 58,000 body bags — or who didn’t see them come back by the tens of thousands with their minds and bodies trashed — and who think that American interests lie in our government insinuating itself into every intramural conflict around the globe. After all, there is no draft. Somebody else and somebody else’s kid will do the fighting and come back faceless, armless, legless…whatever.
Thank God we have a President who has read a history book or two and learned a lesson about witlessly intervening into foreign civil wars. For that matter, thank God we have a President who has read a book.
rcs
June 19th, 2009
4:38 pm
Tom @ 4:33
“Krauthammer has always been an ugly, bitter, hateful little man. Filled to the brim with reptilian Repug thoughts, ideas, theocratic goonery”
Really? Does this include when he worked for Carter/Mondale?
@@
June 19th, 2009
4:44 pm
Get ready to croak Kamchak!
Stratfor — After Khameini’s friday prayers, all things appear subdued.
Instead, Mousavi is probably working behind the scenes to measure how much support he retains among the clerical elite after Khamenei’s sermon. Khamenei clearly indicated that he would work out an understanding with prominent figures like Assembly of Experts chairman Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, while other members of the ruling elite, such as Majlis speaker Ali Larijani and Expediency Council secretary Mohsen Rezaie, have not given up their opposition to Ahmadinejad, but have now taken a public stand with the supreme leader. Without strong backing from the clerical establishment, it will be difficult for Mousavi to continue this protest. Mousavi partook in a silent protest by refusing to make an appearance at the supreme leader’s sermon, but it remains both unclear and unlikely that he will assume leadership of further protests on the streets of Tehran. The risks of such action have escalated now that the supreme leader has drawn a line in the sand and has brought the IRGC into the picture and has framed this crisis as a threat to the foundation of the Islamic revolution. With or without Mousavi’s consent, these protests can still stir up trouble in the coming days, but without a political leadership willing to break with the state, the anti-Ahmadinejad protest movement is unlikely to survive under the gun of the IRGC.
We shall see. Smoldering embers have a propensity to re-ignite.
RealityKing
June 19th, 2009
4:47 pm
And yet, Obama “stands(hides) behind” the resolution in which both houses of Congress have voted to condemn Iran’s crackdown on anti-government demonstrators.
A resolution that had to be initiated by Republicans, as a veiled criticism of Obama, who has been reluctant to speak too strongly about the disputed elections that left hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in charge of the Muslim nation.
Dusty
June 19th, 2009
4:47 pm
OH please, you liberals make me laugh. When did liberal journalists give Bush any good times? From the day he won the election (quite legally) they were hollering and screaming for recounts, broken laws, and any excuses you could find. Some still do it today even though that election has been proven quite in order by many.
Cheney, one of the most intelligent and experienced men in government, was never a clown like Biden. He gave Bush good advice as did many in the Bush cabinet. Condi Rice–super smart and classy. And Gates was so good Obama kept him. Good move. Geitner came out of Bush’s group but I am not sure that was a good move for Obama to keep him, since he helped instigate TARP.
NOw, if Obama can be as protective of Americans as Bush, he might make it if we are not all flat broke and helpless. Bush did it right and it becomes more apparent every day. You libs are just slow on catching on.
Gotta go stir some chili. Smells good!
I Report :-) You Whine :-(
June 19th, 2009
4:48 pm
Scheiner, 71, was Obama’s doctor from 1987 until he entered the White House; he vouched for the then-candidate’s “excellent health” in a letter last year. He’s still an enthusiastic Obama supporter, but he worries about whether the health care legislation currently making its way through Congress will actually do any good, particularly for doctors like himself who practice general medicine. “I’m not sure he really understands what we face in primary care,” Scheiner says
I’m not sure Obozo understands anything, never mind health care.
RealityKing
June 19th, 2009
4:48 pm
Obamamorons said the president is monitoring developments closely and the U.S. is trying to “position ourselves to anticipate what may happen and to shape events to the degree that we can.” Yet Obamamorons would not speculate on how, if any, U.S. policy might change toward the regime if wide-spread repression, violence and bloodshed ensued in clashes between authorities and protestors.
The Nerve
June 19th, 2009
4:49 pm
“Instead, seizing an excuse to attack a president he despises, he advocates a position that is guaranteed to undercut the brave people he claims to support.” I’m confused. Which Democratic politician are we talking about here?
Doesn’t change the fact that Krauthammer is an imbecile though.
rcs
June 19th, 2009
4:50 pm
@@ – nice to see you’re here. Last time I did a drive by, you were leaving because of all the hate filled libs.
@@
June 19th, 2009
4:51 pm
A little late but the WH is talking now:
Officials said the president is monitoring developments closely and the U.S. is trying to “position ourselves to anticipate what may happen and to shape events to the degree that we can.” Officials would not speculate on how U.S. policy might change toward the regime if wide-spread repression, violence and bloodshed ensue in clashes between authorities and protestors.
“We’re going to respond to facts as we see them,” an official said. ——->”We’re going to go about this in a way that advances our interests.”<———
Niiiice…
gawingnut
June 19th, 2009
4:51 pm
Yeah, we have a President that read 2 books. Rules for Radicals, by Sol Alinsky. How to Destroy a Federal Building, by Bill Ayers. He’s well read, alright. He couldn’t make good on the Ted Mack Amatuer Hour.
cdr
June 19th, 2009
4:51 pm
Enter your comments here
Krauthammer is wrong more than he is right. Good that he is just a pundit and we, for the most part, are intelligent, educated Americans who enjoy watching a grown man have weekly temper tantrums. He is always outraged. It is so very old.
Kamchak
June 19th, 2009
4:55 pm
“…does anyone remember the kid/bully from The Christmas Story…the on that Ralphie pummeled?
Anyhoo, there was a little squirt that hung with ‘yellowtooth’….. repeating everything ‘yellow’ said.
I think his name was Toad.
Lotsa Toads on here.
Chris Salzmann
June 19th, 2009
4:58 pm
And this is the same Krauthammer who was part of the GWB cheering section demanding we invade Iraq? We all know how much blood, guts and money that cost us without finding those pesky WMDs or links to Bin Laden. That’s all the Iranian establishment now needs is to be able to paint anybody demonstrating against them as “Agents of the Great Satan”. I’m sure they would be really happy with that kind of “support”.
@@
June 19th, 2009
5:02 pm
rcs:
Admittedly, I was frustrated with the support Letterman was getting for his attack on Willow Palin OR Bristol — no diff in my opinion. Other than that, my pool is undergoing some serious chemical treatment which forbids my entry. Soon though….very soon.
Today I had the good fortune of observing a swimming class in ISR (Infant Self-Rescue) Method. Fascinating if you don’t mind hearing little ones crying hysterically. The baby I accompanied — 15 mos old — not a peep. Motivated by courage and well-timed YAAAYYYS.
Every toddler should go through the program. It saves lives.
I Report :-) You Whine :-(
June 19th, 2009
5:12 pm
In a perverse irony, we are witnessing the most serious threat to the Islamic Republic since its establishment, at the same time the first American president explicitly to accept the regime’s legitimacy happens to be in office. Whatever credibility the mullahs have lost in the street, they have picked up in the Oval Office, where the president bizarrely seems less enthusiastic about a change in dispensation in Iran than much of Tehran’s population.-Rich Lowry
He’s taking the side of evil.
Frederick Douglass
June 19th, 2009
5:24 pm
I watched several interviews yesterday with Iranian expats, and to a man, or in one particular case a woman, they all praised Obama for his
stance on the Iranian protests. The absolute best was the one Fox
and Friends did with actress Shohreh Aghdashloo, apparently she’d been
brought on to condemn Obama, instead she said he was doing precisely
what her countrymen want us to do, and that’s to butt out.
Chris Salzmann
June 19th, 2009
5:32 pm
I Report
You Whine 
June 19th, 2009 5:12 pm SAID: He’s taking the side of evil.
Frederick Douglass June 19th, 2009 5:24 pm SAID: I watched several interviews yesterday with Iranian expats, and to a man, or in one particular case a woman, they all praised Obama for his
stance on the Iranian protests.
CHRIS SAYS: No, no no…….Whinny and this other Neo-Con are right and the Iranians are wrong. What do the Iranians know whats right anyway???? ROFLMAO
I Report :-) You Whine :-(
June 19th, 2009
5:37 pm
Meanwhile, the protesters are being butchered and the democrats take pride in their indifference.
And they can’t wait to get back to talking with the madman.
Gee, I wonder who else is laughing?
Zip
June 19th, 2009
5:48 pm
I’m Conservative but I don’t care for Krauthammer. I think Obama is taking the right tack on this. It will only fan the flames of hatred for America and why would we want to give appear to be in support of a new regime that is no different from the old one? the longer this plays out, the longer their nuke program is delayed. Obama needs to buy time and let the clock run out so he can claim to have shown restraint and kept an open dialog. It sounds kind of cynical but it’s probably the best course for now.
DoggoneGA
June 19th, 2009
5:51 pm
“the longer this plays out, the longer their nuke program is delayed.”
You HAVE GOT to be kidding. Why would you think this has ANY effect on their nuclear program? I can guarantee you that’s it’s not their nuclear scientists and technicians out there beating up protestors…and it’s even highly unlikely they are out there protesting.
Just like OUR “secret” nuclear program way back when…they are most likely sequestered and guarded, with NO access to the “outside” world. Their work continues…as it has done for the last few years.
gawingnut
June 19th, 2009
5:58 pm
That’s a good, point, DoggoneGA. I can’t help but wonder why the peace-loving Muslim country Pakistan wouldn’t sell the Iranians a ready made weapon. Also, I don’t trust Putin even if I’m in the same room with him, and he’d sell his Momma for a nickel. Remember the 100 or so “suitcase” bombs the Russians could’t account for a few years back? Anyone can see that it’s just a matter of time before Hamas (or someone else) gets their hands on a warhead. And Jimmy Carter wants Hamas removed from the terror list.
Chris Salzmann
June 19th, 2009
6:06 pm
Frankly, let them have the Bomb. If they don’t get it today, they’ll get it tomorrow. Every expert agrees on that. Let’s not forget that Ahmedinajad is considered a clown even in Iran. Don’t judge them by his sorry antics. They are a lot more cunning than these Neo-Cons give them credit for. After all, who do you think gave the Neo-Cons all that evidence about those “mobile chemical labs” (which were never found and later confirmed as bogus) anyway? It came from Iranian agents who knew very well that this “evidence” was exactly what Bush and Cheney were looking for as an excuse. What genius! You have your enemy destroy your mortal enemy without spilling a drop of your own blood. This country was run by a bunch of suckers for 8 years. Thank heavens we have a more circumspect President now.
mike
June 19th, 2009
6:16 pm
“The dissidents in Iran do deserve our support and most of all our respect. And that respect requires that we do not treat them and their dreams as weapons in our own domestic political disputes.”
You mean like you just did Jay?