He adds his voice to those who agree Obama's doing the right thing - and the neocons should just stand the hell down.
CNN: What should the United States do?
Zakaria:
I would say continue what we have been doing. By reaching out to Iran,
publicly and repeatedly, President Obama has made it extremely
difficult for the Iranian regime to claim that they are battling an
aggressive America bent on attacking Iran. In his inaugural address,
his New Year greetings, and his Cairo speech, there is a consistent
effort to convey respect and friendship for Iranians. That is why
Khamenei reacted so angrily to the New Year greeting. It undermined the
image of the Great Satan that he routinely paints in his sermons. In
his Friday sermon, Khamenei said that the United States, Israel, and
especially the United Kingdom were behind the street protests, an
accusation that will surely sound ridiculous to most Iranians. The fact
that Obama has been cautious in his reaction makes it all the harder
for Khamenei and Ahmadinejad to wrap themselves in a nationalist flag.
CNN: But shouldn't we be more vocal in our support for the Iranian protesters?
Zakaria:
I think a good historic analogy is President George H.W. Bush's
cautious response to the cracks in the Soviet empire in 1989. Then,
many neo-conservatives were livid with Bush for not loudly supporting
those trying to topple the communist regimes in Eastern Europe. But
Bush's concern was that the situation was fragile. Those regimes could
easily crack down on the protestors and the Soviet Union could send in
tanks. Handing the communists reasons to react forcefully would help no
one, least of all the protesters. Bush's basic approach was correct and
has been vindicated by history.
Nonetheless, not even two years later, Bush did indeed capitulate to the neocons in 1991:
In February 1991, as US forces were crushing the Iraqi army and driving
it out of Kuwait, former US President George Bush broadcast a message
telling Iraqis that there was another way for the bloodshed to stop.
"That is for the Iraqi military and the Iraqi people to take
matters into their own hands, to force Saddam Hussein the dictator to
step aside..." he said in the Voice of America broadcast.
The result was Saddam Hussein's bloodiest and most brutal rampage against his own people...ironically (or coincidentally) and ultimately becoming a major charge in his final trial. It cost hundreds of thousands of lives to achieve that neocon goal. Not. Worth. It.
Neocons seem to have serious ADD when it comes to our history with this region - just a seemingly endless bloodlust. Again we say, they must be marginalized and ignored at all costs.
