Help the Iranian People by Killing Them
The Iranian opposition movement has been brutally suppressed by a regime that has traded legitimacy for control. Facing dire straits, what’s left for it to do?
Jul 31, 202041.5K Shares619.9K Views
The Iranian opposition movement has been brutally suppressed by a regime that has traded legitimacy for control. Facing dire straits, what’s left for it to do? Die in a maelstrom inflicted by the Israelis, according to John Bolton, a Bush-administration undersecretary of state and U.N. ambassador.
There’s a lot of stuff in Bolton’s new Washington Post op-ed about how negotiations over the Iranian nuclear program will fail — and, in all honesty, the case for that looks better now than it did before the June 12 election. But that’s all foreplay. Money quote:
“„Significantly, the uprising in Iran also makes it more likely that an effective public diplomacy campaign could be waged in the country to explain to Iranians that [an Israeli strike] is directed against the regime, not against the Iranian people. This was always true, but it has become even more important to make this case emphatically, when the gulf between the Islamic revolution of 1979 and the citizens of Iran has never been clearer or wider. Military action against Iran’s nuclear program and the ultimate goal of regime change can be worked together consistently.
Yes, the Israeli bombs will only kill the badIranians. When patriotic Iranians of the opposition see Israeli F-16s raining death from above on Iranian targets, Bolton actually expects them to think, “Boom shack-a-lacka! Here come our Israeli liberators! Let them bomb whatever they like, since even though Mir Hussein Moussavi supports a nuclear programas part of a consensus opinion, I believe Israeli propaganda that says it has our best interests at heart! That’ll show Mahmoud Ahmadinejad! Did you hear that, Aunt Marjam? Aunt Marjam…?”
If there’s one thing that a Bush official should understand, it’s that people under attack from a foreign enemy don’t rush to embrace their more moderate leaders.
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Rhyley Carney
Reviewer
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