Volume 3, Number 187
 
'There's a Jewish story everywhere'
 

Tuesday-Wednesday, September 29-30, 2009

THE VIEW FROM JINSA


U.S. should support Iranians seeking regime change

By Shoshana Bryen

WASHINGTON, D.C.—So, Iran's "secret" second uranium enrichment plant isn't secret any more and the United States, Britain and France "demand" that Iran allow IAEA inspectors to visit. President Obama said, "It is time for Iran to act immediately to restore the confidence of the international community by fulfilling its international obligations." He, Prime Minister Brown and President Sarkozy threatened "further and more stringent sanctions." Really.
 
On the assumption that each revelation of additional Iranian nuclear-related capability hides another secret; and on the assumption that the "confidence of the international community" cannot be restored; and on the assumption that Iran is already taking care of its future refined petroleum needs in cooperation with Venezuela, Russia and China; and in the sure knowledge that future sanctions will fall far more heavily on the people of Iran than on its corrupt and venal government; and finally in the sure knowledge that military action has at least as many drawbacks as benefits, we have a better idea.
 
The democracies should stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the hundreds of thousands of Iranians who took to the streets of the cities of Iran last weekend to denounce their government and its support of Hezbollah and Hamas, to denounce the Russians, the Venezuelans and the Chinese, to denounce religion as promulgated by the State, and to demand freedom in their own country. 
 
You didn't know? You wouldn't have known by following the American media, which failed miserably in its obligation to bring us the news we need to make the decisions we have to make. British and French media did better, and bloggers did best of all. 


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Go to YouTube. Watch the Iranians appropriating government signs denouncing Israel and the United States and writing across them to denounce Russia and Venezuela.  Watch thousands of demonstrators carrying signs in English saying, "Russia, shame of (sic) you." Watch them surround the hated Basiji police and watch the police back off. 
 
Go to Pajamasmedia and read Michael Ledeen, who has been following the e-mails, cell phone pictures and tweets of the Iranians, along with his own sources in Iran. Ledeen, a member of the JINSA Board of Advisors, has been the best of the American analysts on what drives the "Second Iranian Revolution" and what its success could mean for the security of the world.
 
In June, President Obama meanly called the corrupt Iranian election an "internal Iranian matter" before tepidly supporting the right of demonstrators to demonstrate, even as he continued to hold out the possibility of respectful negotiations with their jailors.
 
There are no "internal" Iranian matters when the regime that has supported terrorism around the world is pursuing nuclear weapons and the missiles to carry them-whether to Israel, to Europe or to the United States-and has threatened to wipe countries off the map. The past 30 years have been a race between the bomb and the overthrow of the mullahs. We are coming to the denouement.
 
The democracies-with the United States in the lead-must stand with the Second Iranian Revolution for the sake of Iran and for our collective future. 
 
Or face the next Iranian "secret."


Bryen is special projects director for the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs. (JINSA). Her column is sponsored by
Waxie Sanitary Supply in memory of Morris Wax, longtime JINSA supporter and national board member.




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