THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume XI, Issue # 145, June 19, 2009
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
DON'T MEDDLE, BUT HELP CREATE
A TEMPLATE FOR IRANIANS TO ACT
By Dr. Michael Rubin
THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION & U.S. FOREIGN POLICY: THE NEED FOR A COHESIVE & COORDINATED U.S. STRATEGY
RELATING TO IRAN -- ENHANCE U.S. CREDIBILITY BY CLOSING THE GAP BETWEEM RHETORIC & REALITY -- CONSISTENTLY
ACT AS WELL AS TALK TOUGH -- INTEGRATE DIPLOMACY INTO A COMPREHENSIVE STRATEGY THAT HAS
INFORMATIONAL, PSYCHOLOGICAL, ECONOMIC, & MILITARY COMPONENTS AS WELL -- DRAW RED LINES BOLDLY & IN
INDELIBLE INK -- ACT DECISIVELY WITH MORAL CLARITY, SUPPORTING BROAD CONCEPTS SUCH AS LIBERTY & FREEDOM --
SUBSTANTIALLY INCREASE U.S. FUNDS BUDGETED FOR PERSIAN-LANGUAGE RADIO FARDA -- PROMOTE THE
DEVELOPMENT OF INDEPENDENT TRADE UNIONS IN IRAN -- PROMOTE TRENDS & CONDITIONS THAT ARE LIKELY TO MAKE
THE IRANIAN GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTABLE TO THE IRANIAN CITIZENRY, RATHER THAN TO THE GOD OF ISLAM
FULL STORY:
As the Obama administration crafts its Iranian strategy, it should not repeat the mistakes of the past. The Bush approach
lacked cohesion and coordination. A month after President George W. Bush declared Iran part of the "axis of evil,"
the U.S. Deputy Secretary of State said Iran was a democracy. And, although the White House talked tough --
much to the ire of the pro-engagement crowd -- the Bush administration engaged the Islamic Republic more than
any administration since Jimmy Carter's, thereby losing the trust of those seeking more sticks than carrots.
Regardless of his ultimate policy, President Barack Hussein Obama must realize that the gap between rhetoric and
reality is inversely proportional to credibility.
So what should President Obama do? The question is not whether to engage or not, but how to integrate diplomacy
into a comprehensive strategy. Every strategy should have diplomatic, informational, economic, and even military
components. Too often, Washington sequences components when a comprehensive approach bolsters diplomacy's
effectiveness. Washington can no longer play checkers as Tehran plays chess.
Credibility matters. Adversaries test red lines wherever they are drawn. Obama should not, like his predecessors,
draw his in pencil.
Moral clarity is also important. The President can support broad concepts such as liberty and freedom without
endorsing any particular group. Obama should differentiate between the reformists and ordinary Iranians. As
journalist Laura Secor wrote in 2005:
"Iran's reform movement, for all its courage, was the
loyal opposition in a Fascist state. It sought not to
dismantle or secularize the Islamic Republic ... but to
improve it."
Those Iranians most adamantly opposed to U.S. assistance to civil society were those most loyal to the concept of
the Islamic Republic. This does not mean that Washington should meddle or support any opposition group. Twenty
years ago, a lone Chinese student stopped a line of tanks in Tiananmen Square. The goal of our intelligence agencies
should not be to identify that student ahead of time, but, rather, to create a template upon which ordinary people can
act.
Most of the budget for Bush's maligned Iran democracy promotion went to Voice of America and Persian-language
Radio Farda broadcasts. Now that the Islamic Republic has clamped down on internal media, the value of this
information platform is clear. Raise Radio Farda's budget 10-fold.
Lastly, the chief problem in the Islamic Republic is that the government believes itself accountable more to God than to
its constituents. While workers go without wages for months on end, the Iranian leadership invests billions in nuclear
and ballistic missile programs or exporting the Islamic Revolution. If the Islamic Republic had to answer to its
overwhelmingly moderate citizenry, Tehran's behavior would temper considerably. Bush missed a Gdansk moment
when Iranian bus drivers, under the leadership of Mansour Osanlou, formed the Islamic Republic's first independent
trade union. Sugar cane workers in Khuzistan followed suit. Both forced the government to make concessions and be
accountable to Iranians. The development of independent trade unions in Iran is a trend Obama should encourage.
Obama may want to engage Iran's current leadership, but he should throw them no lifeline. It is the Iranian people who
matter most.
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
The Middle East & the Problem of Iran
American Foreign Policy -- The Middle East
American Foreign Policy -- Political & Psychological Warfare
Islamism & Jihadism -- The Threat of Radical Islam
Page Three
Page Two
Page One
International Politics & World Disorder:
War, Peace, & Geopolitics in the Real World:
Foreign Affairs & U.S. National Security
Page Two
Page One
Islamist Terrorist Attacks on the U.S.A.
Osama bin Laden & the Islamist Declaration of War
Against the U.S.A. & Western Civilization
Islamist International Terrorism &
U.S. Intelligence Agencies
U.S. National Security Strategy
Dr. Michael Rubin, a Ph.D. in History (Yale University, 1999) and a specialist in Middle Eastern politics, Islamic culture and Islamist
ideology, is a senior editor of the Middle East Quarterly, a senior lecturer at the Naval Postgraduate School, and a resident
scholar at the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research. Dr Rubin is author of Into the Shadows: Radical
Vigilantes in Khatami's Iran (Washington Institute for Near East Policy, 2001) and is co-author, with Dr. Patrick Clawson,
of Eternal Iran: Continuity and Chaos (Palgrave Macmillan, 2005). Dr. Rubin served as political advisor to the Coalition
Provisional Authority in Baghdad (2003-2004); staff advisor on Iran and Iraq in the Office of the U.S. Secretary of Defense
(2002-2004); visiting lecturer in the Departments of History and International Relations at Hebrew University of Jerusalem
(2001-2002); visiting lecturer at the Universities of Sulaymani, Salahuddin, and Duhok in Iraqi Kurdistan (2000-2001); Soref
Fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy (1999-2000); and visiting lecturer in the Department of History at Yale
University (1999-2000). He has been a fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, the Leonard Davis Institute at Hebrew
University, and the Carnegie Council on Ethics and International Affairs.
The foregoing article by Dr. Rubin was originally published in the Los Angeles Times, June 18, 2009, and
can be found on the Internet website maintained by the Middle East Forum, a foreign policy think tank which seeks to
define and promote American interests in the Middle East, defining U.S. interests to include fighting radical Islam,
working for Palestinian Arab acceptance of the State of Israel, improving the management of U.S. efforts to promote
constitutional democracy in the Middle East, reducing America's energy dependence on the Middle East, more robustly
asserting U.S. interests vis-à-vis Saudi Arabia, and countering the Iranian threat.
(Article URL: http://www.meforum.org/article/2165/create-template-for-iranians-to-act)
Republished with Permission of the Middle East Forum
Reprinted from the Middle East Forum News
mefnews@meforum.org (MEF NEWS)
June 19, 2009
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THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
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Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
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