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Is the U.S. Still Promoting Democracy in the Middle East?
(Politico) Michael Crowley - President Bush refused to deal with Iran, denouncing it in his 2006 State of the Union address as a nation "held hostage by a small clerical elite that is isolating and repressing its people." He implored Iranians to "choose your own future and win your own freedom." To that end he established an Iran Democracy Fund, with a budget of as much as $66 million, to support the country's political opposition. Obama came to office determined to engage, not overthrow, Iran's regime. The Iran Democracy Fund is no more; it has been renamed the Near East Regional Democracy Program, and Obama's budget requests have shrunk by nearly a quarter. The nuclear talks that culminated in last year's deal excluded questions like human rights and political reform, although Obama has expressed hope that they may begin a diplomatic thaw that could gradually liberalize Iranian society. "What's missing in the Obama administration is the clear moral argument that this is an evil regime" in Iran, says Elliott Abrams, a Bush White House aide who worked on the Middle East and democracy. "We ought to be clearer that of course we want regime change."