So What Has "The Great Iranian Nation" Been Up To?

Here is the response of the spiritual leader of Iran to Obama's latest overture:

“Have you released Iranian assets? Have you lifted oppressive sanctions? Have you given up mudslinging and making accusations against the great Iranian nation and its officials? Have you given up your unconditional support for the Zionist regime? Even the language remains unchanged,” [Ayatollah Ali] Khamenei said.

In case you have missed it, here is some of the latest of what "the great Iranian nation" is up to:

An Iranian-American journalist — held in Tehran in solitary confinement now for 47 days — has reportedly been broken by Iranian prison brutality. A blogger whose crime was to have “insulted” the Supreme Leader, is reported to have died in prison. Iran recently televised the government blinding of a man by means of sulfuric acid poured on the eyes. Hangings continue, making Iran a leader in the number of yearly executions carried out, including the gruesome sub-category of child executions.

Is this the side of Iran that Roger Cohen had in mind when he wrote:

Let’s be clear: Iran’s Islamic Republic is no Third Reich redux. Nor is it a totalitarian state.

...Totalitarian regimes require the complete subservience of the individual to the state and tolerate only one party to which all institutions are subordinated. Iran is an un-free society with a keen, intermittently brutal apparatus of repression, but it’s far from meeting these criteria. Significant margins of liberty, even democracy, exist. Anything but mad, the mullahs have proved malleable.

Nope--nothing to see here folks; just move on.

Technorati Tag: Iran.