THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume XI, Issue # 150, June 23, 2009
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
SILENCE IS NOT NEUTRALITY:
Obama Needs to Support Freedom in Iran
By Dr. Michael Rubin
AMERICAN FOREIGN POLICY IN THE ISLAMIC MIDDLE EAST: PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA & U.S. IRANIAN POLICY --
OBAMA'S ERROR IN EXERCISING RHETORICAL RESTRAINT ADMIST IRANIAN PROTEST DEMONSTRATIONS AGAINST THE
TYRANNICAL REGIME OF THE AYATOLLAHS -- THE NEED FOR OBAMA TO DENOUNCE THE IRANIAN REGIME'S ATTACKS ON
PEACEFUL DISSENT & SPEAK UP FOR THE PRINCIPLES OF FREEDOM, LIBERTY, & FREE ELECTIONS -- THE NEED FOR CONGRESS
TO BECOME ACTIVE & SPEAK UP, IF THE WHITE HOUSE CONTINUES TO SHIRK ITS LEADERSHIP DUTIES IN THE AREA OF U.S.
FOREIGN POLICY & NATIONAL SECURITY
FULL STORY:
Over the weekend, both Conservative columnist George Will and former Reagan speechwriter Peggy Noonan argued
that Conservative criticism of President Obama's rhetorical restraint amidst the Iranian protests was unwarranted.
Will said:
"The President is being roundly criticized for insufficient
rhetorical support for what's going on over there. It seems
foolish criticism."
Noonan wrote:
"To insist the American President, in the first days of the
rebellion, insert the American government into the drama
was shortsighted and mischievous. The ayatollahs were
only too eager to demonize the demonstrators as mindless
lackeys of the Great Satan Cowboy Uncle Sam, or whatever
they call us this week."
Both Will and Noonan are right that Obama should not endorse former Prime Minister Mir-Hossein Mousavi, but the
President should certainly speak up for the principles of freedom, liberty, and free elections. He should point out that
Afghans, Iraqis, Pakistanis, and Turks — almost all of Iran's neighbors — have freely chosen governments, and that
this is a right that the Iranian people should also enjoy. Indeed, he can cite the Iranian legacy of elections going back
to the constitutional revolution early last century. Right now, the Iranians are suffocating under a media blackout. In
Tehran during the 1999 student uprising, I remember the frustration in the streets at the lackluster international
response, especially as Iranian state television began broadcasting forced confessions.
If Obama were to get on Radio Farda or Voice of America Persian Service and speak directly to the Iranian people, if he
were to admit he was wrong to have implied that the Supreme Leader was their legitimate spokesman, that might have
tremendous effect. Ilya Zaslavsky, a democratic-bloc leader in the Soviet Congress of People's Deputies, credited
Ronald Reagan, rather than Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, with originating the perestroika reforms.
If Obama is going to shirk his duty, then it is time for the Congress to speak up. In the early 1970s, as now, many in the
foreign-policy establishment opposed any freedom-and-democracy agenda, but congressional activism helped
overcome their resistance. Henry Kissinger opposed the 1974 Jackson-Vanik Amendment, which linked trade with the
Soviet Union to that country's treatment of Jewish emigration, for fear that it could disrupt other diplomatic initiatives;
but dissidents — not just Jewish ones — in the Soviet Union subsequently acknowledged how important that bill's
passage was. We should all be thankful that Ukrainians did not heed President George H. W. Bush's advice to work
within the Soviet framework in his infamous "Chicken Kiev" speech.
Will the Iranian government try to taint the protestors as lackeys of the United States? Yes. But they will do this
regardless of whether Obama speaks up. Former Jimmy Carter aide Gary Sick and pro-engagement voices like Trita
Parsi and James Dobbins condemned George W. Bush's democracy assistance, saying that it sparked the Islamic
Republic's crackdown on civil society. The crackdown had begun years before, however, and had been foreshadowed
by Hamid Reza Taraqi, the head of the hard-line Islamic Coalition Party, before any U.S. initiative was announced. Too
often, critics of White House policy exculpate the worst regimes in order to score political points.
The Islamic Republic's attacks on peaceful dissent are nothing new. The Iranian regime has always blamed Great
Britain, the United States, Bahais, Zionists, and/or Jews for every ill that befalls the country. When the leadership
claims God's mantle, it is hard to accept accountability for the failure of leadership; it is far easier to find straw men to
blame.
Don't underestimate the Iranian people, however. The protestors are no longer supporting former Prime Minister
Mir-Hossein Mousavi; they are chanting "Death to the Dictator" [Khamenei]. They are opposing the Islamic Republic.
While conspiracy theories loom large in Iranian culture — indeed, Iranians poke fun at their conspiratorial nature in
often-humorous ways — the Iranian people can separate the wheat from the chaff. Those inclined to believe
Kayhan, the Islamic Republic News Agency, or the Fars News Agency will do so no matter what
we do. Those disinclined will not swallow regime propaganda simplemindedly.
Obama promised to transform America's image in the world. Excising freedom and liberty from our brand is not the way
to do it. Remaining silent is not neutral; it is casting a vote for the status quo, including the primacy of the Supreme
Leader and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. It is time for Obama and Congress to speak loud and clear in
defense of freedom.
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
The Middle East & the Problem of Iran
American Foreign Policy -- The Middle East
American Foreign Policy -- Constitutional Democracy:
U.S. Promotion of Constitutional Democracy in Foreign Countries
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 National Review Online, June 23, 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/2168/iran-silence-is-not- neutrality)
Republished with Permission of the Middle East Forum
Reprinted from the Middle East Forum News
mefnews@meforum.org (MEF NEWS)
June 23, 2009
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THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
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Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
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