Iran

We should probably feel more outrage over what happened to Zahra Kazemi, and over how the government handled the situation. Today there was news that the Ag department was going to go ahead with a conference called "Doing Business with Iran", but because of public and media pressure, the government is withdrawing from co-sponsoring and participating. But how is it that or Foreign Minister has not been forced to resign? When asked about a little step like withdrawing our ambassador, Pettigrew said no.

"We have, in the past, withdrawn the ambassador, and that has led to nowhere. We need to articulate our case in Iran at the highest level and very strongly." Mr. McTeague said Wednesday that he is encouraged by the support of French President Jacques Chirac. Mr. Chirac has also called on Iranian authorities to have Ms. Kazemi's body undergo an independent forensic analysis, Mr. McTeague said. "Now that we've enlisted the support of the French government, which has very good contacts with the Iranian government, we believe this is the right position to take," he said.

So we'll do nothing, but at least we have French support. Yup, that sounds about right on all levels.