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These comments are interesting:

"The pessimism is as bizarre as it is discouraging. We empowered a successful revolution in the Soviet Empire with the active support of a very small percentage of the population. How hard can it be for a revolution to succeed in Iran, where more than 70% of the people want it? Our experience with Soviet Communism suggests that revolution can triumph under harsh repression, and that there are often dynamic democratic revolutionaries even if we cannot always see them. Indeed, I suspect that in Iran there are many potential leaders, some of whom are in prison while others are underground. I also suspect that there has been a lot of planning, both for the revolution itself, and for the shape of the free society thereafter. This was the case in many of the Soviet satellites--Poland and Czechoslovakia being prime examples--and is certainly ongoing in the Iranian diaspora, whether in the United States or in Europe. It would be surprising if Iranian democrats were not doing the same."

Take a page from Ronald Reagan's book during the 80s. Just Do it.

How hard can it be for a revolution to succeed in Iran, where more than 70% of the people want it?

This is one of the morons who said the U.S. would be welcomed into Iraq with open arms by people who would see us as liberators.

He's got about as much credibility on U.S. policy in the Middle East as Cindy Sheehan. It baffles me to know end to see so many supposedly intelligent people in this country who are willing to accept the assertions of some Beltway @sshole at face value.

From the first hours of the fanatical regime of the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in 1979, Iran declared war on us in language it seems impossible to misunderstand.

I'm guessing that Ledeen has deliberately left out the first 25+ years of this "war" -- which basically began when the Eisenhower supported the overthrow of the duly-elected Mossadegh government of Iran back in 1953. I can understand why a typical American who doesn't know any better would think that in 1979 Iran suddenly decided that the U.S. was their enemy, but when this kind of crap is uttered by a guy who is supposed to be a "Middle East expert" there is no doubt in my mind that it is a deliberate deception.