REUEL MARC GERECHT’S “Going Soft on Iran” is spot-on when he questions
the approach promoted by the so-called foreign policy realists (March 8). Indeed,
for the past quarter century, the fig-leaf policy of successive U.S. administrations
has turned out to be a miserable failure, serving only to prolong the suffering of
the Iranian people and undermining America’s pro-democracy pronouncements
and its war on terror.
But Gerecht’s article leaves much to be desired when it comes to offering a
concrete road map to democracy in Iran. True, Iran’s nuclear and terrorist
programs will only cease when democracy flourishes in Iran, but how does one
achieve a “regime change,” if that’s what Gerecht is proposing?
The fact is that unless the United States shows the courage to rectify Bill
Clinton’s error in 1997 of blacklisting, as a goodwill gesture to Mohammad
Khatami, the Iranian Mujahedeen Khalq, its Iran policy will remain in neutral.
Whether pundits in Washington like it or not, the Mujahedeen Khalq is the
element of change in Iran by virtue of its democratic, anti-fundamentalist Islamic
ideology.
Ali Safavi
Near East Policy Research
Alexandria, VA
Link to REUEL MARC GERECHT’S “Going Soft on Iran”: http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/003/798sghdy.asp
