Iran's Future

Newsweek's Fareed Zakaria nicely sums up the problems in Iran, and offers this advice for the U.S.:

"The most hopeful aspect of Iran's tragedy is that it has dimmed the allure of Islamic politics. Iranians now have a visceral disgust with clerics in power, a backlash that is more likely to produce the separation of mosque and state than scholarly writings about an Islamic reformation. Washington should make a major effort to publicize the mullahs' greed. It can obtain -- from Switzerland, Luxembourg, wherever -- the hard evidence that will show Iranians that their sainted leaders are as corrupt as Africa's worst tin-pot tyrants. Iranians already suspect this, but they cannot know the extent of the damage.

Washington should also fund the satellite-television stations, many beaming out of Los Angeles, that have become manna for information-starved Iranians. Most of their programs are not particularly political, but news, entertainment, fashion -- all harmless windows into the modern world -- are the slow killers of a closed society. Many of these stations are struggling for lack of money. Small sums could make a big difference."

(Charles Paul Freund explained how commercial culture can liberate Islam here.)