The Chris Moeller Archives

Hands off

Welcome back. Sorry for my absence. I was away from home for five days and it's difficult-- though not technically impossible-- for me to blog when I'm not at my desk in the apartment. I hope your Christmas weekend was better than it was for Charlie Sheen.

If you're looking for a bright light of human hope at the tail end of a holiday season marred by unemployment, war, crippling debt, snow and ice-covered roads, and fantasy football defeat-- at least seven of you suffer from this last one, I know-- then look no further than Iran, half a world away, where the Green Movement of opposition to the Ahmadinejad government threatens to transform the region and the world if the United States and Israel have the good sense not to punish the country with military strikes or crippling economic sanctions.

At least eight are dead in riots this week, and hundreds of dissidents have been imprisoned as the people take to the streets numbering in the thousands. The all-too-predictable saber-rattling in Washington is intended to assist the revolutionaries we all support, but even sanctions, and particularly attempts to cut off the gasoline supply to the country, carry the strong potential of politically strengthening the dictators in power. Sixty percent of Iranians favor the restoration of diplomatic relations between their country and the U.S., and it's more diplomacy, not punitive measures however well-intentioned, that will aid in their cause.

Like the Velvet Revolution in Eastern Europe a generation ago, it's the resiliency and persistence of the people that will win the day. Citizens of the United States should stand in solidarity by demanding that our leaders keep from intervening. It's not about inaction or a refusal to take sides. Our collective voice should be heard in support of the revolutionary, but in a way that Iraq and Afghanistan were never allowed to be, the fight in Iran should be for the hearts and minds of the people, not for a perceived victory in Western military or economic strength. It's the Iranian people, and the people alone, that are showing today that they have the power to transform their repressive government into a democratic, secular one. When the people are already in the streets chanting "death to the dictator," displays of strength by an external power already notorious globally for its unwanted interventions can only prove to be a distraction.

posted by CM @ 5:37 PM