The fantasy of an Iranian revolution
By Fareed Zakaria
WashPost
Monday, June 21, 2010
As Barack Obama goes through one of his most difficult periods as president, you might wonder what it would have been like if the other guy had won. We will never know, of course, but in one area John McCain provides us with some clues. He would have tried to overthrow the government of Iran. In a June 10 speech, later published as a cover essay in the New Republic, McCain urged that we "unleash America's full moral power" to topple the Tehran regime. The speech highlights one of the crucial failings of McCain's worldview, one in which rhetoric replaces analysis and fantasy substitutes for foreign policy.
It has become something of a mantra among neoconservatives that we missed a chance to transform Iran a year ago. Reuel Marc Gerecht, writing in the New York Times last week, compares Iran's Green Movement to "what transpired behind the Iron Curtain in the 1980s" and accuses President Obama of being passive in the face of this historical moment. Wall Street Journal columnist Bret Stephens imagines that a more forceful Western response could have set off a revolution.
I have been deeply supportive of Iran's Green Movement. I wrote about it, highlighted it on television and showcased its advocates. But I do not think it was likely to overthrow the Iranian regime. To believe that, one has to believe the government in Tehran is deeply unpopular with a majority of Iranians, holds onto power through military force alone and is thus vulnerable to a movement that could mobilize the vast majority in Iran who despise it. None of this is entirely true.
(More here.)
WashPost
Monday, June 21, 2010
As Barack Obama goes through one of his most difficult periods as president, you might wonder what it would have been like if the other guy had won. We will never know, of course, but in one area John McCain provides us with some clues. He would have tried to overthrow the government of Iran. In a June 10 speech, later published as a cover essay in the New Republic, McCain urged that we "unleash America's full moral power" to topple the Tehran regime. The speech highlights one of the crucial failings of McCain's worldview, one in which rhetoric replaces analysis and fantasy substitutes for foreign policy.
It has become something of a mantra among neoconservatives that we missed a chance to transform Iran a year ago. Reuel Marc Gerecht, writing in the New York Times last week, compares Iran's Green Movement to "what transpired behind the Iron Curtain in the 1980s" and accuses President Obama of being passive in the face of this historical moment. Wall Street Journal columnist Bret Stephens imagines that a more forceful Western response could have set off a revolution.
I have been deeply supportive of Iran's Green Movement. I wrote about it, highlighted it on television and showcased its advocates. But I do not think it was likely to overthrow the Iranian regime. To believe that, one has to believe the government in Tehran is deeply unpopular with a majority of Iranians, holds onto power through military force alone and is thus vulnerable to a movement that could mobilize the vast majority in Iran who despise it. None of this is entirely true.
(More here.)
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