Surprise. Max Boot at Commentary wants Israel to bomb Iran now. So does John Bolton, speaking from the fever ward, the Washington Post op-ed page. The former ambassador says the Tehran revolt has upped the urgency for regime change.
Significantly, the uprising in Iran also makes it more likely that an effective
public diplomacy campaign could be waged in the country to explain to Iranians
that such an attack is directed against the regime, not against the Iranian
people. This was always true, but it has become even more important to make this
case emphatically, when the gulf between the Islamic revolution of 1979 and the
citizens of Iran has never been clearer or wider. Military action against Iran's
nuclear program and the ultimate goal of regime change can be worked together
consistently.
I spoke to Antony Loewenstein today, who says that the Bolton piece lends credibility to the theory that the U.S. had some (even mild) involvement with the Tehran spring. If you look at all the color revolutions and "democratic" insurgencies in Europe and Asia, from Ukraine to Belarus to Moldova to Georgia, he says, there has been a U.S. role. Why and to what end? Mohammad of Vancouver suggested as much in a post on this site a few weeks back. Huh.
