Product Description

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #403208 in Books
• Published on: 2007-09-04
• Released on: 2007-09-04
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 288 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Ledeen, a well-known conservative pundit on Iran, argues passionately for a bolder, better-reasoned American policy toward the Islamic republic. He presents compelling evidence that the Shiite regime has collaborated with al-Qaeda and other Sunni terrorist organizations, and that Iran's Supreme Leader has considered the goal of killing Westerners and Jews throughout the Middle East. In presenting his litany of Iranian perfidies, however, Ledeen can seem to overreach: he divines Persian influence in the siege of the Great Mosque in Mecca in 1979 and implies there's consensus that Tehran is harboring Ayman al-Zawahiri. Of 9/11 Ledeen writes, [W]e have still not unraveled all the threads of the September 11 conspiracy. If we ever do, I suspect we will be amazed at the number of terrorist groups—and their national sponsors—that were involved in the conspiracy. The last third of this short book is dedicated to improving American policy toward Iran. One of the cooler heads at AEI and the National Review, Ledeen presents discussions not on bombs and tactical strikes, but on the moral, logistical and material support for Iranian dissidents, who he claims make up a clear majority of the population. While he may overestimate the potential for regime change in the near future, Ledeen's suggestions merit further discussion. (Sept.)
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Review

About the Author

Customer Reviews

If You Can't Change People, Change People

Michael Ledeen's essential thesis in this book is that the Islamic Republic of Iran is an unchanging, intransigent, and implacable enemy of modernity and of the West. Since the revolution that brought the Mullahs to power, US policy has naively hoped that forces of moderation would gain the ascendancy and that a negotiated common ground would be found. Nearly thirty years later, Iran retains its hardened position, torturing its people, engaging in international terrorism, and developing a nuclear capability to dominate the region. Ledeen argues that since the Islamic Republic has not changed, it is time for US policy to promote regime change in Iran.

This is all well and good, but the key question is how to accomplish this goal.

The author proceeds from the assumption, articulated by Machiavelli, that "tyranny is the most unstable form of government". This being the case he argues that not much is needed to oust the mullahs, writing, "The Iranian people need three things from us to catalyze their wide-ranging protests into an effective revolutionary force: hope, information, and some material support".

Hope, according to Ledeen, is provided by nothing more than a declaration that the United States wants regime change in Iran, transmitted into the country by radio such as the Voice of America.

Information, in the author's view, also depends on radio broadcasts and the Internet to let the Iranian people know what's going on in their country, and to provide "how to" information from leaders of other revolutionary movements.

The needed material support to bring about the downfall of the regime includes nothing more than "satellite phones, laptops, servers, phone cards, software to beat the regime's `filtering' of the Internet, and so forth". Ledeen helpfully points out that "Such material should be distributed to the key groups: students, teachers, workers (especially truck drivers and oil and textile workers), key religious leaders, both inside Iran and to their supporters outside".

Sorry. This seems just a bit too easy.

Particularly after Ledeen's effective portrayal of the government as ruthless, tenacious, and highly organized in its grip on power, this analysis seems to exhibit the same naïveté that he is so critical of in the US policy of the last thirty years.

And there are other problems with this book.

Many controversial statements are made without supporting documentation, and this cannot help but erode the credibility of the author's argument.

This is unfortunate. Ledeen is correct that the Islamic Republic represents a profound threat that must be confronted before it is too late. It is too bad that his book is not likely to persuade those who do not yet understand this.

Superb modern history
Michael Ledeen thinks that Iran's "mullocracy" can be toppled without U.S. force, and that American's military choices are limited to a focus on Iran's nuclear program or general bombing to destroy Iran's fascist government. He also believes that the only exportable U.S. "weapon" is "the American democratic revolution."

Like former federal prosecutor Andrew C. McCarthy, I disagree. If the U.S. tackles Iran militarily, its campaign should not be hobbled in advance. Moreover, Iran is one of world's states least likely to sprout an American style democracy.

Everything else in this book, though, is not only intelligent, but necessary to U.S. national survival. Democrats and Republicans alike have got to stop playing footsie with the Islamic theocrats, and pretending that some miracle will moderate Islamic fascism.

There are many reasons for Islamic stridency, not least of all the history, theology and ideology fundamental to all forms of Islam, Shi'ite and Sunni alike (as explained brilliantly in Dr. Andrew Bostom's The Legacy of Jihad: Islamic Holy War and the Fate of Non-Muslims and his forthcoming The Legacy of Islamic Antisemitism: From Sacred Texts to Solemn History).

But among the most pertinent reasons just now is the refusal of U.S. governments for the last 30 years to even examine the problem. The former President most at fault is Jimmy Carter (The Real Jimmy Carter: How Our Worst Ex-President Undermines American Foreign Policy, Coddles Dictators and Created the Party of Clinton and Kerry), but certainly, others have done their bit, more than accommodating Islamic radicals whom they wishfully insist on terming "moderates." Especially Bill Clinton, (The Clinton Crack-Up: The Boy President's Life After the White House) but also Ronald Reagan--who was far too consumed with defeating communism to see the next (far more dangerous) ideological war had already started--not to mention many State Department and other officials, wearing blinders, nighttime light blinders, that is.

Pretending we can negotiate with people who want to destroy the West only empowers them.

I strongly recommend reading Islamic religious history in books like Bostom's. But Michael Ledeen also offers a critical political analysis of the modern American weakness, a collective refusal to see the elephant sitting right in front of us.

--Alyssa A. Lappen

must read
Concise, well-written, well-organized so that the situation in the M.E./Iran and its neighbors becomes quite clear. The author has done great research and a complete job. Has sparked my interest in foreign policy. Great job.