Bush seeks regime change in Iran, but how?

Agence France-Presse:

US President George W. Bush has been actively behind “regime change” for Iran, but the route to that end has yet to be defined and the perils are great, US experts said.

US officials shy away from pronouncing “regime change,” a controversial phrase on the international scene, but their intentions are clear, analysts said.

“I have no doubt the president and his closest advisers believe that the way both to solve the nuclear problem but also to deal with terrorism and improve the lives of the Iranian people is regime change,” said George Perkovich, an Iran specialist at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, a Washington think tank.

Bush clearly encouraged opponents to the regime last week, during his annual State of the Union address before Congress: “To the Iranian people, I say tonight: As you stand for your own liberty, America stands with you

Administration “hawks” have been promoting the idea that the regime is teetering and easy to topple.

“I think it’s much easier than in most of the other cases, because we know from the public opinion polls conducted by the mullahs themselves that more than 70 percent of people hate this regime and want it changed, they want to be free,” said Michael Ledeen, of the American Enterprise Institute, a neoconservative think tank.

How to get there is the subject of much Washington speculation

A group of legislators has introduced in the US House of Representatives a draft bill, the Iran Freedom Support Act, which would provide further political and financial support for so-called prodemocracy elements, especially opposition television and radio.

The Committee on the Present Danger, a group of Washington heavyweights, including former Republican secretary of state George Shultz and former Democratic presidential hopeful Joseph Lieber­man, have released a document saying, “We recommend a peaceful but forceful strategy to engage the Iranian people to remove the threat and establish a strong relationship, which is in both nations’ and the region’s interests.”

Correction: This article had been posted earlier and was incorrectly attributed. The source of this story is Agence France-Presse. Sorry for any confusion.