The Green Movement for Democracy in Iran - A Place for Common Ground in American Politics

Protests heated up again in Iran over the last few days, and the American media finally started to pay attention to the news last night. This latest round of protests started as a leading opposition cleric died and protesters used the mourning period as time to re-state the case for democracy and fair elections in Iran. While other Western and Middle Eastern news outlets such as the BBC were reporting protests as they started, the American media has been slow to pick up on this significant news item.

Indeed, the problem is not just with the American media, but the American polity in general. It is difficult to understand why the press, politicians and activists from all political stripes are not paying more attention and support the pro-Democracy movement in Iran. Supporting the Greens within Iran should be a top priority because Iran is front and center of our foreign policy. Why?

• Pursuit of Nuclear Weapon - Iran continues to resist the efforts of Western powers, Russia and China to find a compromise that will serve to have uranium enrichment and reactor by products be done. Within the last 6 months, it was revealed that the Iranians had been hiding another nuclear site from regulators and the nations engaged with the negotiations. Iran continues to develop a nuclear capability while thumbing its nose at negotiation efforts. A new democratic regime within Iran should be much more open to pursuing peaceful nuclear power.
• Geographic Location Between Our Two Wars - Iran is smack-dab in the middle of the Afghanistan and Iraq. The President and the Secretaries of State and Defense have continue to say that all options are on the table. A military strike may be necessary to take out nuclear facilities but could have far reaching consequences in further destabilizing the most volatile region in the world. Support for the Green movement would lead to at least a more reasonable regime, if not pro-Western.
• Support for Proxies Against Israel - The strongest support in terms of money and arms for Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas within the West Bank, is Iran. Iran's President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, is on record as a Holocaust denier and declared enemy of Israel. No matter what we feel about the status of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Iran is not helpful. A nuclear-armed Iran would be a threat of the highest order. Its not just Israel who is affected. The rest of the Middle East similarly is deeply worried about a nuclear-armed Iran. For example, would the Saudis feel the need to respond in kind?

Iran is one issue in which we Americans, conservative, liberal and centrist, ought to be able to find a lot of common ground and push our leaders to be be more engaged on the issues. There is much to agree on as we fight nuclear proliferation and support the pro-democracy movement within the country. What should we be encouraging our political leaders to be doing?

• Voice in no uncertain terms our support for democracy and human rights within Iran. Political leaders should be publicly and loudly shaming the current regime into stopping the jailing and killing of protestors.
• Call for another election with international inspectors. If the election was legitimate, certainly an inspection by neutral party would be acceptable.
• Highlight the case within the UN and other international institutions. Every chance we get, we should highlight human rights abuses.
• Build case for additional sanctions that would target the regime. The West is already pushing additional sanctions because of the nuclear issue. The crackdown could provide a tipping point to implement additional sanctions.
• Find ways to materially support the Green movement through secure communications and other matters. The greens originally used facebook and twitter to organize mass demonstrations in July. The Iranian government is now using the same tools to track down dissidents. Providing more options for proxy servers to anonymize web traffic could protect protest organizers. Cyber attacks against Iranian government agencies to degrade the ability of government to track dissidents should also be explored.

It was frankly disappointing last summer to see President Obama's late and tepid response to the protests as the opposition Green movement. He was correctly criticized by conservatives for engaging the issues too late and offering too little response. I can understand that he may not have wanted to give the current regime an opportunity to blame outside interference for the protests. Now, everyone understands this is a movement internally based, allowing the US and others to push the case with much more gusto. The President should not lose this current opportunity to highlight the illegitimacy of a regime that must jail and kill people who protest against it.

The President and Americans across the political spectrum can get behind a concerted effort to support the pro-Democracy movement and human rights in Iran. In the Cold War, there was pretty broad agreement from Democrats and Republicans about engaging the Soviet Union in the battle of ideas while using military force when necessary to stop the spread of Communism. Democracy, human rights and the threat of a nuclear-armed Iran present a similar case in which the US can have a united foreign policy once again.