Shelby Steele’s column, excerpted and linked below, makes a case for opening a dialog with the mullahs in Iran, an idea advanced by Barak Obama.

If Mr. Obama’s idea was born of mushy idealism, it could work far better as a hard-nosed moral brinkmanship. Were an American president (or a secretary of state for the less daring) to land in Tehran, the risk to American prestige would be enormous.

The mullahs would make us characters in a tale of their own grandeur. Yet moral authority would redound to us precisely for making ourselves vulnerable to this kind of exploitation. The world would witness not the stereotype of American bullying, but the reality of American selflessness, courage and moral confidence.

Steele speaks of “the world” as if there exists some unbiased audience of fair minded people who recognize right and wrong. This, in itself, is mushy idealism.

One must ask, who are we seeking to impress with our moral authority?

• Europe? In the 1990s, it stood by and watched the Balkans descend into genocide, leaving the USA to clean up the mess. The anti-Americanism extant in European media is laughable. Alas, much of Europe is a collection of spoiled ingrates whose freedom was paid for by American blood and treasure. Apart from any tactical reasons, why should we care what they think?
• WWII is known as the “good war.” If England had heeded Winston Churchill’s warning about Hitler and took military action to prevent Germany from rearming, it would have been a better war, but one that lacked moral authority.
• Bill Clinton and the UN have never been called to account for standing by as 800,000 Rwandans were macheted to death. Presumably Clinton, by doing nothing, maintained his moral authority — just look at the adoring crowds he attracts.
• In Iraq and Afghanistan, we liberated 51 million people from tyrany and midwifed democracies. Yes, both are fragile. Both cost innocent lives. Both saw our troops misbehave in certain circumstances. But the big picture is positive, yet “the world” affords virtually no moral authority to the endeavor. So what?

In world where Michael Moore can invent dark motives and sell them to a gullible public, where media savvy terrorists can influence the narrative in the US and world media, where conspiracy theories are swallowed whole, exactly what’s the point?

Once Iraq was liberated, Osama bin Laden declared Iraq as the primary front in the war against the west. Because of a stalwart president and our exceptional military, Al Qaeda is suffering a humiliation before the whole world. That defeat will redound to the whole world’s benefit in ways we will never fully know.

And we’ll never get so much as a thank you.