The editors at the New York Times say that “Mr. Bush is at it again, this time trying to bully Iran into stopping its meddling inside Iraq.” They go on,
It’s not surprising that the Times would make Iran out to be the victim, but the conclusions they draw are equally misguided. Efforts by the Bush administration to ratchet up the pressure on Tehran already appear to have had a considerable effect on Ahmadinejad. Writing in the Guardian, Ali Ansari, an Iran expert, had this to say about the current situation in the Islamic Republic:
Ansari’s conclusion is that as bad as things have become, and as problematic as the “burgeoning international crisis” has been for Ahmadinejad, more pressure is likely to save the president by spurring a rally-round-the-flag consensus in Iran. Of course, that has always been the case against military action–that it would drive a mostly sympathetic population into the arms of the extremists. But all evidence points in the opposite direction. The Bush administration’s push to isolate and destabilize the regime seems to be working. And speaking of the deployment of an additional carrier strike group to the region, Rear Adm. Kevin Quinn said, “We are ready, we are sustainable, we are flexible and we provide awesome combat capability . . . Just the fact there are going to be two carrier strike groups operating in that region could deter any state or non-state sponsored organizations from doing something we wouldn’t want them to do.” That’s not bullying, that’s just old fashioned deterrence.
