tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34135100.post4263855580161036788..comments2024-01-21T02:42:13.447-05:00Comments on Middle East Reality: Zalmay Khalilzad and the American way of lying about Iran and the Middle EastArnold Evanshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11445744338502151561noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34135100.post-20833362025119309142011-03-07T12:32:04.708-05:002011-03-07T12:32:04.708-05:00Khalilzad is a co-author of the Defense Planning G...Khalilzad is a co-author of the Defense Planning Guidance of 1992.<br /><br />"Our first objective is to prevent the reemergence of a new rival. This is a dominant consideration underlying the new regional defense strategy and requires that we endeavor to prevent any hostile power from dominating a region whose resources would, under consolidated control, be sufficient to generate global power. These regions include Western Europe, East Asia, the territory of the former Soviet Union, and Southwest Asia. There are three additional aspects to this objective: First the United States must show the leadership necessary to establish and protect a new order that holds the promise of convincing potential competitors that they need not aspire to a greater role or pursue a more aggressive posture to protect their legitimate interests. Second, in the non-defense areas, we must account sufficiently for the interests of the advanced industrial nations to discourage them from challenging our leadership or seeking to overturn the established political and economic order. Finally, we must maintain the mechanisms for deterring potential competitors from even aspiring to a larger regional or global role."<br /><br />Cf. http://rightweb.irc-online.org/profile/1992_Draft_Defense_Planning_GuidanceKlaus Weißhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09954486838189089000noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34135100.post-11232263997605615742011-03-06T16:30:48.512-05:002011-03-06T16:30:48.512-05:001) The Iranian government, by any reasonable stand...1) The Iranian government, by any reasonable standard, is as democratic as any other.<br /><br />Any policy that gains consensus support in Iranian society can be enacted through a process that runs through elected officials.<br /><br />I've never seen a counter-example, a policy that most Iranian people oppose but that is still law.<br /><br />2) Mousavi as the loser of the most recent election, has not been advocating democratization, defining democratization as I do as the ability of a government to, through representative means, enact policies that reflect the values, perceptions and sensibilities of the people governed.<br /><br />3) As far as freedom, there is a balance between community standards and personal permission in every society. There is also a balance between national security and personal permission. Iran in both cases sets the balance, as far as I can tell from polls, in a way consistent with the preferences of the Iranian people.<br /><br />I have not gotten a good sense of exactly what Mousavi advocates. Maybe you can point me to a good source.<br /><br />So far it does not seem to me that he advocates either democratization or freedom.Arnold Evanshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11445744338502151561noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34135100.post-20748396239499248232011-03-06T15:19:09.800-05:002011-03-06T15:19:09.800-05:00"Mousavi received fewer votes than his oppone..."Mousavi received fewer votes than his opponent in an election, whatever you want to call his movement, it cannot be called democratic"<br /><br />whatever you think of mousavi's expired presidential bid, the iranian govt is not democratic. there is ample space for mousavi and others to advocate for democratization and freedomImannoreply@blogger.com