The Apple Sometimes Falls Faaaaaaar From The Tree

The headline of a recent Middle East Media Research Institute translation reads, "Khomeini Calls for Foreign Military Intervention in Iran." No, not that Khomeini. Ayatollah Hussein Khomeini, the grandson of the Iranian Islamic revolution's founding father, raised eyebrows several years ago by saying he wanted to see the mullahs deposed. Now he is making the case anew, arguing, during a recent interview with the Dubai-based Al Arabiya television news network's website, that "freedom must come to Iran in any possible way, whether through internal or external developments."

His comments have generated a flurry of interest, probably thanks to their shock value. But, for my money, the most noteworthy part of the interview came when Khomeini, who still lives in Iran, explained why he favored American intervention: "If you were a prisoner, what would you do? I want someone to break the prison." Whether or not he intended it this way, Khomeini was offering a succinct, and compelling, defense of idealism in U.S. foreign policy. To be sure, Khomeini is probably wrong to think that an American invasion of Iran is a good idea; it almost certainly is not. (I'll leave aside the question of whether we might have to bomb the country to destroy its nuclear program.) But Khomeini is right to insist that Americans--in thinking through the role we should play in the world--put ourselves in the shoes of those living under tyrannies and ask whether we, if we were living under an oppressive regime, would want a global hegemon to take strong steps to hasten the day of our liberation.