danajohnhill.org | Hard Times Come Again No More

Robert Kagan has a column in the Washington Post today criticizing President Obama for not publicly encouraging the supporters of Mir Hossein Mousavi, who have been in the streets of Tehran for days now, protesting the results of the (almost certainly rigged) recent election.  Kagan argues that Obama’s Iran strategy, which, in stark contrast to Bush’s policy, involves direct talks with the government there, means that the president wants the protesters to give up, and for Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to simply be acknowledged as the winner, fraud or no fraud.

This is patently absurd.  I can almost guarantee you that the Obama administration would have very much preferred a Mousavi victory.  But what good would it do to trumpet that preference at this point?  None.  The United States has no ability whatever to demand a recount or a do-over.  And to officially declare that Ahmadinejad is a cheater will only make things worse for us if the forces within Iran–the only ones who can do anything to change this–do not succeed in overturning the sham election.  What chance would we have to discourage the pursuit of nuclear weapons by Iran if their president thinks we’re against him personally.

As always, an argument as foolish as Kagan’s comes complete with an intentional misinterpretation of history:

Supporters of President Obama, who until very recently had railed against the Bush administration’s “freedom agenda” and who insisted on a new “realism,” have suddenly found themselves rooting for freedom and democracy in Iran.

Supporters of President Obama–let’s say liberals in general–didn’t ever oppose “freedom and democracy”.  They opposed the military invasion of a sovereign nation that had no weapons of mass destruction or connection to 9/11 at a time we were fighting the Taliban and al Qaeda in Afghanistan and Pakistan and could not afford to redirect those resources.

Liberals are not contradicting themselves as Kagan would like you to believe.  He’s lying, and I’m sure he knows it.  In any case, I shouldn’t expect any better from the man who co-founded the Project for the New American Century, and who pals around with Bill Kristol.

Filed under: Current Events on June 16th, 2009