I must admit, that I had great hopes that the election in Iran was going to turn out quite differently. It would have been a great development had Ahamdinajad been sent packing-but it appears that is not to be. However regardless of who becomes Iran’s President-what are we to do about it?
Iran is, after all, still a sovereign nation. That its government may not-resemble what we want it to be, does not mean that we have some sort of carte blanche to try make them change it. If anything-this could be a really positive development, Ahmadwhat’shis name may have overplayed his hand-and in turn that could lead to a popular uprising against his regime. I doubt it will go that far-the Iranians have learned how to let the leash out just far enough from their Chinese “buddies”.
Go here for some good discussion on where to go from here. It is also still early-the next few days are going to be interesting.
But in the end-this really should not change our baseline policy towards Iran. It is important not to let our personal preferences shape our view of the legitimacy of elections. We deal with whoever shows up to the table.
And no Virginia-Fox Fallon was not wrong. Attacking Iran would the worst possible thing we could do. So tell the boys at the American Enterprise institute to head on home. This is about them, not us.