Obama is handling this just right. It would be tempting to jump all over the Iranians with self-righteous posturing, but since there is not a damn thing we can do about it, it would accomplish nothing except make us look like impotent fools, which is exactly what we'd be. Either way, we'd lose.

If the protestors lose, Iran would use us as an excuse for their problems with some justification (you know they are going to do it anyway), and the dissidents would bitterly resent our inability to intervene after all the brave talk. Interested third parties, especially states hostile to us, would just dismiss the insurrection as another CIA inspired coup. And if the dissidents win, we may not get what we want anyway. Mousawi is a former prime minister, he was part of the post-embassy takeover establishment, not a pro-western liberal democrat. Amadinejad is, after all, the devil we know. We should be careful what we wish for, we just might get it.

What we should be doing is exactly what Obama is doing (although I do agree he was a bit slow on the uptake and I do criticize him for that, as do others in his own party). He must not take sides, but continue to mumble the usual platitudes about the people's right to assemble to express their grievances. The Republicans are throwing their usual hysterics, knowing they won't have to pay the consequences, especially if a blooodbath ensues that we helped provoke.

Remember our pious support of the Hungarian revolution during the Cold War? They learned the hard way just how cheap American tough talk can be. Remember the senior Bush's vocal but futile support of the Kurds and the Basra Arabs after the first Gulf War? I never criticized Bush for that, because I realized I would have made the same mistake if I had been in his shoes. But he, and I, learned our lessons. And apparently, so did Obama.