Declare yourself and your nation on the side of hope and change where it is more than a slogan and better than a rationalization for ever-bigger government. Stop measuring the success of your diplomacy with Iran by the degree to which the grinning, hate-filled stooge of a clerical junta will “temper” his rhetoric about the pressing need to destroy Israel and slow his ineluctable pursuit of nuclear weapons...Instead, choose a higher standard. Look to history. Look to the aspirations of the students risking their lives and livelihoods to protest a sham election...Obama's Choice is Not to Choose on Iran, Jonah Goldberg, National Review, 6/17/2009
While the writer is unalterably opposed to the socialist agenda of the current administration, one has to step back and pay closer attention to Iran than those oln the right berating White House policy regarding the recent sham election. What Goldberg and others chanting for the President to support Iranian students have ignored is that there is no substantive difference in the anti-Semitic rage and promise to annihilate Israel with atom bombs between the current President of Iran and the counter-claimant to the office, Hossein Moussavi.
Hossein Moussavi is as much a creature of the mullahs as Ahmadinejad is. In fact, as a former Prime Minister, he had far more power than the Iranian Presidency, which has the prestige of titular head of state, but very little executive authority. That power resides with the mullahs, who were just as happy with Moussavi as they are today with Admadinejad. There is no reason to speak out for either side in this “election,” as it was, in essence, between factions of almost identically dangerous politics.
So, it is possible that even a Chief Executive holding otherwise reprehensible political views can act with real wisdom in foreign affairs. Taking no sides is about the only smart choice with Iran. No side in contention there is worth the trouble. To parody an old joke in science, it's mullahs all the way down.
Luther
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