Mulling over the Mullahs

Ledeen on Iran:

In fact, according to Iranians with whom I have spoken, there were monster demonstrations in eleven provinces and 37 cities, and many thousands — one source said more than 30,000 — people were arrested, some only briefly, others shipped off to the infamous prisons and torture chambers of the regime. The most dramatic events took place in Shiraz, where the demonstrators directed a chant toward Washington: "Bush, you told us to rise up, and so we have. Why don’t you act?"

Which is precisely the right question. The president publicly promised the Iranian people that the United States would support them if they acted to win their own freedom, and the Iranians are now calling on Bush to make good on that promise.

Now's not the time for niceties---the best way to achieve regime change in Iran is to help the Iranian people do it. The Iranians have been doing their best to thwart our efforts to toss out the Iraqi Ba'athists---why not repay the favor?