Andy, buddy, how do I support Ahmadinejad? Isn’t that a calumny too far? And why do you want to sound like a member of some loony conspiracy (“Her support for Ahmadinejad is the same as Daniel Pipes’ and the Mossad’s.”)? You used to be the sort of fellow who believed in getting rid of bad guys (h/t to Pete Wehner for laying out Sullivan’s Travels).
Listen, here’s where decent folk stand: Ahmadinejad is a bad man. He is destroying his country. Mousavi is not much better (and has a track record to prove it). This is not the Persian Gorbachev. This is not even the Persian Khruschev. I believe in the Iranian people, and I believe they deserve better. I believe their protest is symbolic because they are being beaten down by the IRGC, and because even if they win, they will labor under one of the world’s most dreadful systems. People like me stand with the Georgians, with the Afghans, with the Sudanese, with the Lebanese. We believe in freedom, not in the “Protocols of the Elders of Zion.”
P.S. Could you explain why you liked Abbas Milani’s interesting piece, but thought ours represented a vote for tyranny? Just askin’.