Asia Times: US neo-cons sniff a chance

[marmar]

US neo-cons sniff a chance
By Daniel Luban


WASHINGTON - As United States President Barack Obama attempts to navigate the treacherous currents of the ongoing political crisis in Iran, he faces a heated attack from neo-conservatives and other right-wing hawks who are urging him both to offer unequivocal support to the protesters supporting defeated presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi and to scuttle his planned diplomatic engagement with Tehran.

So far, Obama's cautious stance has earned praise from Iranian activists, area experts and much of the Washington foreign-policy establishment, who warn that an enthusiastic US embrace of the protesters would threaten to delegitimize them.

"What happens in Iran regards the people themselves, and it is up to them to make their voices heard," Nobel Peace Prize-winning Iranian human-rights activist Shirin Ebadi told the Washington Post on Thursday. "I respect comments on all the events in Iran, but I think it is sufficient."

Still, the right-wing attacks have put a great deal of political pressure on the president to take a more activist stance, and may pave the way for a domestic political backlash against him if the Iranian government ultimately represses the protesters and keeps hardline President Mahmud Ahmadinejad in place after he won a disputed term for another four years.

Leading the charge have been prominent congressional Republicans, such as Senator John McCain and Representative Eric Cantor, as well as neo-conservative pundits such as Robert Kagan, whose Washington Post column on Wednesday argued that Obama's "strategy toward Iran places him objectively on the side of the government's efforts to return to normalcy as quickly as possible, not in league with the opposition's efforts".

Similarly, influential neo-conservative pundit Charles Krauthammer called the administration's rhetoric "disgraceful" and claimed that Obama was offering "implicit support for this repressive, tyrannical regime". ...........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/KF20Ak01.html

[MarjorieG]

1. Neo-cons love Mousavi, whose shady beginings date back to Iran-Contra. A good pol, maybe.

[EFerrari]

2. McCain was at it on the Senate floor this morning.

All of a sudden, he LOVES the same people he wanted to BOMB BOMB BOMB not too long ago. Disgusting jerk.

[necso]

3. Why anybody would

listen for a second to the neocons on foreign policy is beyond me. (If any of those "real" "men" still want to go charging to Tehran, may I suggest changing their meds, sobering up.)

...Oh right, the corporate media is a collection of hirelings, quislings; tools, fools.

...

This is an internal Iranian matter.

And backing either side (as a national, political entity) would do them (and us) no good; indeed, it would almost certainly hurt the opposition if we can even be effectively cast (widely, to the Iranian people) as backing them. Moreover, even if the side we backed won, they might feel a need to distance themselves from us.

...

But, of course, this isn't about the best foreign policy course; it's about the cons doing whatever they can to score points, con people, make trouble -- and have the President fail, fall in ratings, etc (etc).

Swine.

[AntiFascist]

4. Neocons are no friends to the activists...

they would just as soon bomb, bomb, bomb....bomb, bomb Tehran.

[DFW]

5. Why and with whom exactly...

...is Charles Krauthammer "influential?"