Ask and ye shall receive. The Wall Street Journal today:
So when are President Bush's critics, including those in his own State Department, going to concede that he was right all along to include Iran in the "axis of evil"?Now would seem to be an apt moment, after last Friday's sham election in which Tehran's ruling clerics bullied their way to a majority in what passes for a parliament. The mullahs also fessed up over the weekend to yet another instance of deceiving U.N. nuclear inspectors, conveniently ahead of a report this week from International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief Mohammed el Baradei.
...We should have learned by now [that appeasement] is a fool's game, entirely at odds with Mr. Bush's "forward strategy of freedom" in the Middle East. Now is precisely the time for Mr. Bush to show solidarity with the majority of Iranians who want greater freedom, just as Ronald Reagan spoke up for the people of Poland in the early 1980s.
Caught by Kathryn Lopez of National Review:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE February 24, 2004STATEMENT BY THE PRESIDENT
I am very disappointed in the recently disputed parliamentary elections in Iran. The disqualification of some 2,400 candidates by the unelected Guardian Council deprived many Iranians of the opportunity to freely choose their representatives. I join many in Iran and around the world in condemning the Iranian regime's efforts to stifle freedom of speech — including the closing of two leading reformist newspapers — in the run-up to the election. Such measures undermine the rule of law and are clear attempts to deny the Iranian people's desire to freely choose their leaders.
The United States supports the Iranian people's aspirations to live in freedom, enjoy their God-given rights, and determine their own destiny.
Excellent, Mr. Bush. Now elaborate and follow through. Tehran deserves to be the capital of a democratic nation.