More Foggy Thinking From Foggy Bottom

Stay away from the "family fight," that's the advice that Powell is giving for handling the Iranian situation.

Now I know that I had said a while back that we should let events in Iran unfold without military intervention. But there is no reason that we can't take advantage of a favorable situation when it presents itself.

Instability in Iran is our friend. We want it to be unstable; we want the clerics and thugs looking over their shoulders.

Khatami is an elected President like any good dictator. The clerics vetted him and eliminated his competition. The clerics basically appointed him. So why does Powell even entertain the thought that the Iranian President might make concessions to the protestors?

Part of it is because that's Powell's job. He is supposed to look for any and every opportunity to promote diplomacy. But part of it is because of a lack of clear thought at the lower levels of the State Department.

The State Department would probably not call a cow a cow if it might offend some bovine support group somewhere. There are so sensitive to political correctness that they seem to be afraid of the truth.

Iran is not a democracy. It is a theocracy that puts on airs of being a democracy. Their "democracy" is nothing more than a cheap sop to the Iranian people to try to manipulate them into believing that they are free, while tightly controlling their actual freedom.

I have no problem with Powell wanting to seek a diplomatic solution to the Iranian problem. That's his job and I expect him to do it.

However, he needs to understand that sometimes the diplomatic solution can be advanced by intervention on behalf of those we support.

Opportunity for intervention is fleeting, especially in today's high tech world. The recognize and respond cycle has gotten extremely short. We must be poised to take advantage of opportunities as they present themselves.

Powell needs to start looking for an opportunity to clear house at the lower levels of Foggy Bottom. The thinking down there just isn't too clear.