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tyrants of Tehran took the "axis of evil" charge very
seriously, perhaps because they know better than anyone just how
accurate it is. They assumed that when the president of the United
States issued the moral equivalent of a declaration of war, he was
ready to take serious steps to end their murderous rule, and bring
freedom to the Iranian people. So they did what any normal group
of paranoid megalomaniacs would do: They intensified the repression.
They rounded up 40 leaders of the student movement, and many of
their teachers, and slammed them into jail, and subjected them to
the usual beatings and tortures. Two teachers are already dead:
Ibrahim Ahmadzadeh and Ghassem Zadehmoien, both victims of torture
at the hands of the Revolutionary Guards.
These murders
reduced by two the spectacular number of prisoners in the Islamic
Republic, now more than 600, 000. But Ahmadzadeh and Zadehmoien
are notable, because they are the first casualties of our government's
embarrassing timidity ever since the president's speech. With the
exception of Vice President Cheney, and some pointed remarks from
Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld, the leaders of this administration
have tiptoed around the Iranian question. Secretary of State Powell,
for example, continues to say that he would welcome constructive
dialogue with the mullahs, especially their designated front man,
President Khatami. I have not detected a word of protest about the
brutal repression of students and teachers, or the increased censorship,
or the frantic destruction of satellite-TV dishes in the major cities.
If this sheepish
silence goes on much longer, we risk a terrible consequence: The
Iranian people will write off George W. Bush as they wrote off his
father and Bill Clinton. They will conclude that the "axis
of evil" remark was some sort of trick, or an illusion, or
at best a slip of the tongue, not as a prelude to serious American
action on their behalf.
We should not
let a day go by without reminding the world about the evils of the
Iranian regime. We should increase our own broadcasting, and denounce
any and all efforts by the mullahs to jam it. We should immediately
find financial support for Iranian National TV in Los Angeles, the
most potent source of accurate news for the Iranian people (and
the subject of a marvelous article in last
Sunday'sNew York Times magazine by Michael Lewis), now
struggling on the edge of bankruptcy. And we must find ways to get
help to the dissidents: money, communications equipment, information.
If we really
have a wonderful CIA, as George Tenet claims despite the abundant
evidence of its impotence and fecklessness, we should be able to
document the long list of hostile actions taken against us and our
allies in Afghanistan by Iranian officials and agents (here's a
heads-up for Langley: The regime has planned a series of actions
in the second half of March), along with the details of the Stalinist
crackdown now underway in Iran itself, and bring them to the world's
attention. That would at least give heart to the democratic forces
inside the country. That way, they would at least know that their
suffering is recognized and appreciated.
We want a nonviolent
democratic revolution in Iran, led by those brave Iranians who have
risked their lives in the streets, and who are now suffering at
the hands of their torturers. Silence after the State of the Union
means complicity with the torturers. It is clearly not what the
president wants, but it is what the inaction of his government is
producing.
Faster, please.
We're losing ground.
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