Michael Ledeen for Sec. of State

As usual, Michael Ledeen makes terrible sense in his response to the latest blather from certain corners about a possible rapproachment between the mullahcracy of Iran and the U.S.:

Secretary of State Colin Powell, recovering from his recent cancer surgery, chose to issue yet another blandishment to the regime, expressing the hope that it might soon be possible to sit down and improve relations. To these words of good will, the so-called reformist president of the Islamic republic, Mohammed Khatami, responded with the back of his moderate hand. There would be no improvement until and unless the United States mended its evil ways, and first the Americans would have to "learn their lesson in Iraq."

For those willing to see what is before our noses, that was a fine description of Iranian intentions. They mean to drive us out of Iraq (and Afghanistan as well) by killing as many Americans (and Iraqis and Afghanis) as they can. Meanwhile, they are spreading their oppression to Iraq itself, and attempting to get their French friends back in business there.

Ledeen makes the point that the mullahs are trying to oppose us in every way possible because, as SWLiP has previously noted, their entire raison d'etre is opposition to the U.S. and Israel. If the mullahs were to make nice with us, their own self-built sense of legitimacy would cease to exist.