American journalist freed from Iranian prison

Yesterday we got the good news that American journalist Roxana Saberi was freed from prison in Iran. She had been arrested in January and sentenced to eight years on charges of spying for the U.S. But now an Iranian appeals court has suspended the sentence and has given Saberi permission to leave the country.

I can think of a couple of factors that likely contributed to this good outcome.

First, Amnesty International had launched a worldwide action alert that resulted in more than 26,000 messages to the Iranian government demanding Saberi's release. Other organizations also conducted letter/petition drives. As with other grassroots success stories, this is proof that letter writing and petition campaigns really do work sometimes.

Also, the Obama administration's calm and diplomatic approach to foreign policy probably served the cause much better than his predecessor's bullying cowboy act would have. As my grandmother used to say, you can attract more flies with honey than with vinegar. And Obama'a approach is more likely to make other nations want to support our cause -- including some nations that Iran happens to respect.

Grassroots and honey -- not cowboys and vinegar. It works. So there, Mr. Bush!