First off, I have no idea what the Obama administration should do to support reform in Iran. I try to keep up with events, I have read a couple of books, but I know what I don't know -- and that's enough about Iranian reality to make a judgment.
But I do know my old pals, the American Neocons.
Fred Barnes and Charles Krauthammer on last night's Fox All Stars provided unintended light along with the usual heat. They were outraged -- outraged! -- that Obama has been so cautious in his response to that rigged election. The fact that Pat Buchanan, the Paleoconservative enemy of all things Neo, supports Obama's restraint provides the complementary indicator. And when Richard Lugar takes Obama's side against John McCain that rounds out the picture.
Don't forget what the Neocons want. They want war on Iran. That's what they were after back when they were fabricating the case for going into Iraq. They are nothing if not consistent. They want the US and Israel joined at the hip, blasting Iran with bunker buster bombing raids. If you keep that in mind, all else follows.
The possibility that leaders could emerge in Iran who would be less easy to portray as Hitlerite lunatics in mufti has the Neocons worried. That's why they are bashing Obama for not coming out more strongly in support of those democratic masses in the streets of Tehran. They actually want Khamenei and Ahmadinejad to prevail.
But that means they agree with Obama's analysis -- that's the irony here. They believe that if he actually did what they want him to do it would help the Iranian authorities to justify a massively violent crackdown on the protesters by accusing them of collaborating with America.
They are -- the cynicism is breathtaking -- pretending to care about those millions of demonstrators. But they don't. What they really want is for Khamenei and Ahmadinejad to pull a Tiananmen Square so as to gain support in the West for war against Iran.
That's about as low as you can go -- and they are there. Again.