Iran again

It seems to me that Michael Rubin is one of the last people on the planet who should be lecturing George Soros on effective democracy promotion, but then, unlike Soros, Michael Rubin only seems interested in democracy promotion inasmuch as it means that plenty of explosions and genuine human suffering intervene between this Saturday and the rise of representative government in Tehran. Hence the lecturing.

At any rate, terrified by the possibility that Soros' efforts might castrate American propaganda efforts in the Middle East, Rubin sneaks us a peak at his somewhat incoherent stream of consciousness:

Successful democracy promotion must have teeth. As tensions rise between Washington and Tehran over the Islamic Republic's nuclear program, Congress should work to avoid escalation to military conflict. An Islamic Republic accountable to its own citizenry would invest in better schools, hospitals, wages and infrastructure, and it would not divert billions for uranium enrichment and ballistic missiles. Empowering Iranian civil society presents the best hope to avert military escalation or a nuclear Iran. The last thing Congress should do is narrow the remaining policy options by de-funding support for Iranian democracy.

Indeed, Congress should work to avoid escalation to military conflict in Iran. But then so should Michael Rubin and his friends in the conservative movement, if they really think that military conflict in Iran is best avoided. Of course, they don't really think that at all. That's where the whole "successful democracy promotion must have teeth" business comes from, and why a couple dozen words later he adds, contradictorily, that Congress should do anything but "narrow the remaining policy options". They should, of course, be expanded. Widely. To increase the chances of some future casus belli.

Based on this, I think one must conclude that what Rubin really would like to see is a constitutional crisis in the the United States over the issue of war with Iran--a battle he'd like the administration and the Republican party to win, even at the expense of American and Iranian lives. Because if that happened, then Iran might enjoy the same style of vibrant, blossoming democracy as does Iraq--which, we're supposed to believe, is the ultimate goal.