President Obama’s Nowruz message, broadcast directly to the Iranian people, complete with Farsi subtitles, is brilliant.

Whether one agrees with everything he has to say, can anyone seriously question the wisdom of his actions or the sophistication of his approach?  Sadly, some are doing just that, but they are wrong.

It’s not that I don’t appreciate their concerns.  Iran is a complicated place lead by troubling people.  But whenever we conflate the citizens of a nation with their leadership, especially when the nation is a whole lot less free than is our own, we do so at our own peril. In fact, those who are most concerned about Iran, should be applauding the President’s broadcast the most loudly — he has leaped past the government of Iran and taken his message directly to the Iranian people.

And to those who question even this level of engagement, I would point to the results of US involvement with the committee planning the Durban II Conference.  After the administration was heckeled for getting involved with the same people who sponsored Durban I, which was little more than an anti-American, Israel-bashing hate-fest, they proved that they made the right decision.  The Draft document for Durban II has dropped all such objectionable language.  I guess engagement pays off!

Without imagining that one broadcast will change the world, we can acknowledge that this has been a good week for those who believe that we must talk the most with those of whom we agree with least.