It has been said many times that those who forget history are doomed to repeat it. Yet Americans, predominantly on the left, refuse to remember how we felt after 9/11 or how Saddam acted and what the world thought at the time, ad nauseum.
As we debate the best response by the U.S. administration, we neglect to notice that Obeyme and his comrades without arms continue to view the world, particularly troublemakers, by imagining they can discern what is being thought instead of what these regimes and their people actually do.
Obeyme assumes that Iranians despise the U.S. because of a CIA sponsored coup 54 years ago while protesters take to the streets armed with English language signs, obviously written with Americans in mind. All the while this administration dismisses the obvious: Bush’s stand in Iraq showed the middle east how their own democracy could begin. Beware not only threats to the mullahs control of Iran, watch for a simmering of pro-democracy sentiment in Saudi Arabia. That will be a real change. Hey, maybe that’s what he meant after all.
