(Weekly Standard) Jeffrey Gedmin - Iranian President Ahmadinejad calls himself a fundamentalist. He was an officer of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard and by all accounts is a real-deal Islamist. He says he wants Iran to be a great "world power" capable of challenging the U.S. So how should we respond? By now it must be obvious that if the U.S. is serious about preventing the mullahs from getting the bomb, we have two choices: either preemption or regime change. By now it is also pretty clear that bombing would be difficult, which can only make one wonder why we have been so slow in giving serious support to the democracy movement in Iran. This regime has to go. The country is ripe for revolution. Iran has a foundering economy, a large, disenchanted youth population, pockets of independent media (including a staggering 64,000 Persian-language blogs), and, of course, the powerful example of developments throughout the region. After Iraq's election last year, photos of Iranians holding up proudly their fingers dipped in blue ink to say, "It's time for us to vote, too!" swept the Internet like wildfire. The secretary of state says Iran is an "outpost of tyranny." George W. Bush says the "Iranian people deserve a genuinely democratic system." There's a strong logic now to marry resources to rhetoric.
2005-07-13 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive