Roger Cohen’s article in the New York Times (March 22, 2009) analyzing President Obama’s televised greeting to the people and leaders of Iran on the occasion of the Persian New Year, Nowruz, evoked a poignant feeling of déjà vu for me.
Cohen believes and hopes that in his message, President Obama is basically abandoning the idea of regime change and of a military confrontation and is also rejecting the idea of linkage between the internal policies of Iran and international relations.
Reading it, I recalled how we, the democratic dissidents of the Soviet Union, looked in desperation and anger (and sometimes with deep disdain) at the messengers of the “free world“, who were willing to accept the Soviet Union as it was, who denied the policy of linkage between human rights and international pressure, and who did everything to downplay the military threat of the Soviet dictatorship. Immediately I thought what Iran’s democratic dissidents must be thinking while reading such an article?
What must they be thinking? They're thinking that we'll look the other way while the Iranian government oppresses and kills them as long as we get a nice shiny document, complete with lovely ribbons and official wax seals, that lets the West pretend that Iran is going to be on their best behavior from now on. That their struggle for even scraps of freedom is unworthy of the support of the greatest democracy on the planet. That they have no hope for any peace but the peace of a cemetery.
What is exactly is "liberal" about our liberals who'd throw Iran's dissidents to the wolves?
