Leaders

Iran reminds me of a small piece in the series "I, Claudius."  Pretty poor production values by today's standards, and very talky.  The series is about the Julian-Claudian emperors, cast as the reminiscences of Claudius.  There is a scene late in the series, most of the details of which I do not recall anymore - which emperor, etc.  In any event, the person is before the emperor and about to be sentenced to death for plotting or such.  The man says, to the effect of, "One thinks that if one shouts 'Liberty!' the walls of the city will all fall down.  They don't of course."  And off to his death.  But it is a piece of thought that recurs for me.  And Iran is an example, in this sense -- what is the US to do, and what is it that the government and the President to say?  We are for liberty and for democracy and so on.  But to what end?  It does not seem likely that anything said by anyone here will have a useful effect there.  At least, it is hard to see what good would come of governmental announcements.  The US is no friend of Iran and it would be less than serious to suppose that those in opposition to Khamenei and Ahmenijad will be bolstered by announcements.  Maybe.  But also, and much more certainly, ammunition for the government.  This is a hard problem for political theory -- when and what sort of intervention.  Makes Walzer's story-telling (in place of theory) more palatable.  But not more instructive.