The US should be on the side of freedom in Iran

Hugh Hewitt:

An election launched the revolutions of 1989, and for those who doubt the ability of the demonstrators in Iran to bring about fundamental change in their country, the Polish vote of June, 4 1989 is worth remembering. That vote ratified Solidarity as the voice of the Polish people, and the communists across Europe were defeated from that day forward, even though the revolutions that would eventually shatter not only the totalitarian governments of the Warsaw Pact but also eventually destroy the Soviet Union would take two years to fully run their course.

Sometimes popular uprisings end in bloodbaths and repression, as at Tienamen Square. But sometimes as with Poland --and then Hungary and then East Germany and then Czechoslovakia etc-- the people cannot be denied their freedom, and totalitarians are overthrown.

Whether June 12 becomes a date as significant in Iranian history as June 4 is in Poland's remains to be seen, and the realists warn us that the possibility of regime change from the bottom up in Iran is remote at best.

But the degree of difficulty of the effort being made in Tehran and throughout the country should not deter Americans, and especially our government's leaders, from speaking clearly to the aspirations for genuine freedom on the part of the vast majority of Iranians. The Iranians marching and twittering and working in many other ways to topple the Khamenei theocracy are putting their lives on the line. The least we can do is pray for their success, publicly cheer them on, and to put as much rhetorical pressure on the forces of Ahmadinejad and his allies as it is possible to muster.

...

If this rebellion in Iran succeeds it will be one of George Bush's legacies and not Obama's. Bush has been the spokesman for democracy in the Middle East and his accomplishments in Iraq and Lebanon gave hope to those in Iran seeking to free them selves from the religious bigots in charge.

What is happening in Iran has gone past whether the election was fair or stolen. It is a rejection of an evil regime.