March
4, 2002 8:10 a.m. Iran
and the Axis of Evil
We
can’t lose anymore ground.
he 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.
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he 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.
