Could we be making the same mistake about mutterings in Iran against their version of Obama?

I don’t think great countries ever fall apart, even after the worst misfortunes. There’s always be a China; probably always be a Russia. And the odds are good that the United States will survive pretty much anything you can throw at it, short of the end of the world. Hundreds of millions of people, a culture, history, tradition. Hard to kill. Iran has been around for a long time. It will survive. It’s the regime that will change.

Personally I don’t think Iran will ever morph into something we want it to be. But it will become very different from what it has been. Any regime that’s gone on for 30 years is bound to be riddled with faction, corruption and resentment. I think those factors are real. A regime like Iran’s is going to use considerable force to stay in power. But, absent outside support, its day may simply be limited. Past its expiration date. There are ambitious men in Iran; men eager for business, achievement or whatever, and Islamic Republic has cramped their style for too long.

That’s not to say the successor regime will be all sweetness and light. But sooner or later, there will be a successor regime. All things come to an end, especially tyrannies. I think that’s clear. President Obama’s problem is two fold. First, is he dealing with yesterday’s men? Second, is he indirectly propping them up? The Left makes a big deal about conservatives supporting tyrants and thereby besmirching America’s name in the mud. But they rarely notice when they do the same thing themselves. How will it be for America’s name if the Iranian opposition comes to power and remembers that Obama helped their oppressors to the last? Somehow I don’t think he will be as convincing to them as he can be to the American left. So for practical as well as moral reasons, his “grand bargain” ought to take into account the real possibility that he will be signing with the wrong crowd.