Iran's democrats

Akbar Atri on Iran's democrats. WSJ:

Here in America, where I have been living since 2005 as an exiled activist, a controversy has emerged over the Bush administration's pledge to provide $75 million in democracy and human-rights assistance to Iranians.[snip] Those so righteously opposed to funding might have us believe that if it were not for American support, Iranian activists would not be facing intimidation, imprisonment and torture. But since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, the Iranian regime has been systematically imprisoning, killing and otherwise silencing civic actors--particularly secular, liberal democrats--under bogus charges of espionage and collusion with foreign agents. Just this year, Iranian authorities have executed without due process over 100 people, yet none were said to be connected to U.S. democracy funds. There is not much new in the Iranian government's strategy of repression, but what is promising and hopeful to Iran's democrats--and threatening to the Iranian leadership--is that there is finally real support from the outside.

The funds support VOA and Radio Farda ("Tomorrow"), connecting the Iranian people to the outside world. American private sector civic groups are also helping, much as we did during the Cold War. Iran has a very young and educated populace, who have lived under the terror regime for 30 years. Brave university students protested against Ahmadinejad recently. How can we turn our backs on them?