Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, as everyone on the internet knows, delivered a speech yesterday outlining America’s commitment to “internet freedom.” Evgeny Morozov, Ethan Zuckerman, and many others already have posted some good responses. But from where I sit, a good way to make sense of the international politics of Clinton’s speech is to juxtapose it with another article published yesterday by two key Bush administration public diplomacy officials, James Glassman and Michael Doran, calling on the U.S. to use the soft power of the internet to promote regime change in Iran. The problem for the U.S. is that when Clinton talks, most of the world hears Glassman and Doran. The problem for Glassman and Doran is that when they talk this way, it makes it less likely to work… and opens up a whole basket of moral hazard issues.

For better or for worse, most of the world probably assumes that Clinton has the same goal in mind as Glassman and Doran, even if she doesn’t say so. And that’s a major problem if you think about it. When the U.S. says to Iran or to other adversarial regimes that it should respect “freedom of internet expression” or “freedom of internet connectivity,” those regimes will assume that it is really trying to use those as a rhetorical cover for hostile actions. And if Glassman and Doran have their way, they will be right.

Obama’s engagement strategy and refusal to engage in the ritual denunciations and demonizing rhetoric used by the Bush administration and demanded by his critics actually makes it marginally more likely that it could quietly support the valiant efforts of protestors such as those in Iran. But only marginally — because the legacy of the past looms large, and Obama has not been able to establish that his America is fundamentally different from the past decades, especially on Iran. IND:  This is a typical response by many in the left.  Past American policy errors of commission must not result in present policy errors of omission.  The trick is getting the balance right.