30 years of failed Republican foreign policy coming back to haunt us

This is a bit rich:

Republican senators criticized President Barack Obama on Sunday for not taking a tougher public stand in support of Iranians protesting the outcome of the country's contested presidential election, with one saying the president had been "timid and passive."

So, what exactly do the Republicans expect Obama to do? Withdraw our ambassador and refuse to recognize the regime? Implement a trade embargo? Bellow that the Iranian regime is illegitimate and that its days are numbered?

...i.e., the same thing we've been doing for the last 30 years? The same approach that Reagan, Bush I, and Bush II took toward Iran when Iran wasn't beating its people to death in the streets?

Our policy toward Iran has been the same as our policy toward Cuba: huff and puff and fail to blow their house down. Instead of "isolating" those countries, we have simply driven them beyond the reach of our influence, so that when an opportunity finally comes for us to push them toward change, we are totally powerless. If we still had trade with Iran, we could threaten to halt it. If we still maintained diplomatic relations with Iran, we could threaten to sever them. But instead, 30 years of failed Republican policy is coming back to haunt us.

I want to say "Memo to the Republicans: Bellowing at people never works." But I think they know that. Something tells me that Reagan started the "cold shoulder" policy toward Iran not because he actually thought it would force them to change, but because it made him seem tougher than Jimmy Carter. And it worked. But then Bush II came along, and everyone had a pretty good look at how pathetic and powerless Reagan's grandstanding had actually made U.S. foreign policy.

The Republicans spoke loudly and carried no stick at all. Now it's up to Obama to quietly rebuild U.S. power. Too late, though, for Iran.