Take me to your Supreme Leader!
There was a time when the leader of the West would have addressed the oppressed and declared, fearlessly, to friend and foe alike, "I am a Persian!" Or when he would have looked the antagonist in the eye and said "Tear down this (virtual) wall, Mr Ahmadinejad!"
But those days are with Kennedy and Reagan in their graves.
What we are left with now are bleatings from Brussels (the EU is Iran's largest trading partner), and as Christopher Hitchens put it so bluntly and perfectly, "shame on our pathetic secretary of state, who said that she hoped that 'the genuine will and desire' of the people of Iran would be reflected in the outcome. Surely she knows that any such contingency was deliberately forestalled to begin with."
But perhaps the diplomats, who appear to be loathsome cynics, possess more wisdom than we give them credit for. They know that Iran's Ali Khamenei is the country's Supreme Leader and that elections are irrelevant when a country is ruled by such an entity. It was the evil Ayatollah Khomeini who dreamt up this office and in his bequeathed theocracy no political decision is lawful until it is approved by the Supreme Leader. Even the taking of office by the "democratically elected" president is subject to the consent of the Supreme Leader.
"There will be many issues to discuss between our two countries, and we are willing to move forward without preconditions on the basis of mutual respect." So said President Barack Obama ten days ago in Cairo. He was referring to Iran. Mutual? Respect? We've come a long way from the days when those who sought to overthrow tyrants got support, even if it was only verbal, from those who were in a position to provide it. There will be many issues to discuss when the people of Iran are allowed to discuss them.
