In a grown-up world, Daniel Pipes would probably be one of the most widely syndicated columnists in the United States. Though frequently dismissed as a standard-issue neocon hawk, Pipes’s thinking is contrarian and unpredictable. In this column, he has some kind words for a group (and leader) that is listed as a terrorist organization by the United States, a designation he dismisses as “preposterous.”

Pipes writes:

The MEK mounted an impressive display in France, as it did at the last meeting I attended, in 2007, with dignitaries, made-for-television pageantry, and a powerful speech by its leader, Maryam Rajavi. Like the street protestors, she also called for the demise of the Khomeinist regime. In a 4,000-word speech, she steered blessedly clear of attacks on the United States or Israel and excluded the conspiracy-theory mongering so common to Iranian political life. Instead, she:
Ridiculed the regime for portraying the demonstrators as Western agents. Bitterly complained that corpses of demonstrators were “wrapped in American flags” and then trampled upon. Condemned the regime’s “crimes” in Iraq and its “export of terrorism” to Lebanon, the Palestinian Authority, and Afghanistan. Predicted that “the beginning of the end” of the Islamic Republic of Iran is underway. Critiqued the Obama administration for giving yet another chance to the regime, noting that the Bush administration had met its representatives 28 times to no avail.

Compare Pipes’s column to the thumbsuckery in the New York Times editorials: “As a first step, authorities should set up a commission representing all major candidates to examine the election data and jointly determine a face-saving and credible way forward.” Agree or disagree with Pipes, one of these arguments is worth taking the time to read, and it’s not the one in the Newspaper of Record.