A pinch of principle, a dash of pragmatism, patience — stir gently

American right-wingers say we ought to get tough with Iran for having a disputed election.

Then maybe Iran could turn around and tell us how to get Minnesota's second senator seated so that all Americans could have equal representation.

Then maybe Iran could get all high and mighty over the way Al Gore got most of our votes but didn't get awarded the presidency.

American right-wingers are saying that even French President Nicolas Sarkozy has condemned the allegedly irregular Iranian election. They say President Obama should do the same.

This amounts to turnabout, but not fair play: You have American right-wingers wanting an American president to make like a Frenchman. How's that for rich, or bitter, irony?

Here's the thing: Obama is smarter than bellicose conservatives about how to deal with the Islamic world. And the discerning and fair-minded among us ought to be able to agree that George W. Bush's way didn't do us much good.

Obama's method is reserved, restrained, calculating, understated, serene, wise.

He realizes that there are, by very loose categorization, three kinds of Muslims throughout the Middle East.

First you have those who are extreme and evil and devoted to murder and who can't be reasoned with. So you have war with those people.

You track them in Afghanistan and you prevent them, whatever it takes, from getting nuclear weapons.

You dare not give them any basis in evidence whatsoever to argue in the court of world opinion that those of their citizenry protesting in the streets are mere tools of an imperialistic America.

Second there are those not violent or terrorists but who still hate America, or at least intensely dislike us, for what they perceive to be a meddling nature, even a domineering one, by our country in their region. Obama understands you don't stand a chance of eroding that antipathy by appearing to reinforce it.

Third you have moderates, a middle class, a more educated group, and younger people. They rather like America, or at least the one Obama seemed to represent with his sensitive and inclusive speech in Cairo.

Obama understands that these are the ones in the streets of Tehran, by and large, and that they are there in part because of the message he delivered.

He understands that America best serves these people's interests, and its own, by letting the protests speak for themselves.

But American right-wingers can't get past their narrow-minded hawkishness and chauvinistic ego-centrism, which happen to be the very qualities that made such a mess in Iraq. From John McCain to the decidedly less sane, they seem to think America can actively engage in Iran's telling internal chasm and get that part of the world transformed into our image.

They learned nothing in Iraq, where some people took to the streets to bring down a statue of Saddam Hussein, then others hid in alleys to watch our soldiers get blown up.

Missions don't get accomplished as quickly as George W.'s banner proclaimed. Captain America doesn't always save the day in foreign lands. Sometimes he only gums things up.

By week's end, Obama had it just about right. He didn't know about that election; it's not our business nor is it a matter on which we have any expert information. But he was appalled and outraged to see free expression denied and he wanted Iran's leaders to understand that they could never be welcomed into the civilized world unless they learned to behave in a civilized fashion.

Here, then, is the recipe: One part principle, one part pragmatism, one part patience. Stir gently whenever possible, vigorously only if necessary.

John Brummett, an award-winning columnist for the Arkansas News Bureau in Little Rock, is author of "High Wire," a book about Bill Clinton's first year as president. His e-mail address is jbrummett@ arkansasnews.com.