"Leave Iran to the Iranians"

"Iranian hardliners just can't wait for President Barack Obama to raise high the protesters' green banner so they can turn it red, white, and blue and unleash a bloodbath against 'American agents.' And American hardliners and foreign-policy gurus just keep pushing Obama toward precisely that rhetorical abyss..."

"For many years now, virtually every Iranian who talks to an American says we should stay out of their affairs, that when we try to help them, we hurt them. Do you hear Iranians twittering their thanks to Charles Krauthammer, Paul Wolfowitz, Joe Lieberman, and John McCain? Does that silence mean anything to those Americans urging them on to spill their blood for freedom and democracy? Oh, of course, our moralists and seers of 'a historical turning point' are not so crude as to blatantly call the protesters to freedom's barricades or for Obama to urge a bloodbath for democracy. But they walk right up to that line."

"Charles Krauthammer doesn't hesitate to proclaim his real goal: 'regime change' as the only way to solve future nuclear threats. 'Our fundamental values demand that America stand with demonstrators opposing a regime that is the antithesis of all we believe.' He then asks, 'Where is our president? Afraid of meddling.' And how does this brilliant pen of the right propose to meddle effectively? Like his neoconservative brethren, he offers nothing besides moral condemnation."

Captain America "fails to mention moral calls in the 1950s by John Foster Dulles and the C.I.A. for uprisings in Hungary and its neighbors. The result? Soviet armies crushed the revolutionaries, and we did nothing, as President Eisenhower had made clear was his position beforehand. And [Captain America] doesn't mention H.W. Bush's urging the Shiites of southern Iraq to rebel against Saddam in the wake of the first Gulf War. This resulted in a Shiite rebellion and in Saddam's killing tens of thousands of those poor souls, while Washington did absolutely nothing. And what about Tiananmen? Would going to the moral mattresses have prevented the awful crackdown by the Chinese communist government? Not a chance. And look where we are today-with China as America's biggest holder of U.S. securities. [Captain America] and his fellow neocons are well aware of these histories and historical complexities. So, their disregard of any fair-minded exposition of the issue suggests a hidden motive - [Captain America's] goal of confrontation and regime change." (References to "Captain America" added.)

These quotes are from a new piece from the Council on Foreign Relations. Let me just add that this blatant naming of names and very direct criticism is unusual for CFR. This is a very moderate, centrist organization. For them to so directly and vehemently criticize the neo-conservative position is quite significant. I should also add that CFR is the producer of the excellent academic journal, "Foreign Affairs," which is read very widely in Washington.

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