Silence Is Not Neutrality
Obama
needs to support freedom in Iran
by Michael
Rubin
National Review Online
June 23, 2009
http://www.meforum.org/2168/iran-silence-is-not-neutrality
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.
"The president is being roundly
criticized for insufficient rhetorical support for what's going on over
there. It seems foolish criticism," Will said.
"To insist the American president,
in the first days of the rebellion, insert the American government into
the drama was shortsighted and mischievous," Noonan wrote. "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 Pres. 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 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 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.
Michael Rubin, a senior editor
of the Middle East
Quarterly, is a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute and a
senior lecturer at the Naval Postgraduate
School.
Related Topics: Iran, US policy Michael
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