Yesterday in the streets of Iran, protesters against the tyrannical, terrorist theocracy braved attacks from water cannon and machetes. They were speaking up for freedom and democracy at extraordinary personal risk.

Naturally, some Americans wanted to express support for the protesters, hoping to nurse freedom in Iran. This is consistent with American values, and it also would help our national security by removing a terrorist-sponsoring regime with nuclear ambitions.

Among those Americans on the side of freedom is Senator Brownback, who, with the bipartisan support of Senators Kyl, Schumer, Inouye and others, introduced the Iran Democracy Act. That bill stated clearly,”There is currently not a democratic government in Iran. Instead, Iran is an ideological dictatorship presided over by an unelected Supreme Leader with limitless veto power, an unelected Expediency Council, and Council of Guardians capable of eviscerating any reforms, and a President elected only after the Council disqualified 234 other candidates for being too liberal, reformist, or secular.” That is a crucial point, because the American deputy secretary of State, Richard Armitage, has been going around saying publicly and incorrectly that “Iran is a democracy.”

The Iran Democracy Act went on to assert it is the policy of America to “support an internationally-monitored referendum in Iran by which the Iranian people can peacefully change the system of government in Iran.” And it included millions of dollars in funding to help spread the message of freedom in Iran.

Unfortunately, the Iran Democracy Act ran into opposition from the Republican chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Richard Lugar, and the top Democrat on the committee, Joseph Biden. Mr. Brownback, desperate to show some signal of support to the brave Iranian forces of freedom, compromised, proposing a trimmed-down amendment to the State Department authorization bill. That proposed amendment said “It is the policy of the United States that currently there is not a democratic government in Iran, the United States supports transparent, full democracy in Iran, and the United States supports the holding of an internationally monitored referendum in Iran by which the Iranian people can peacefully change the system of government in Iran.”

Yet even that proposal was too much for Ayatollahs Lugar and Biden. In the end, what was added to the Senate bill neither clearly stated that Iran is undemocratic nor called for an internationally monitored referendum. It merely stated that the United States supports transparent, full democracy in Iran and the rights of the Iranian people to choose their own system of government, and that the United States condemns the human rights abuses of Iranians expressing political dissent inside Iran.

That’s better than nothing. And perhaps there’s some poetic justice that, as America seeks to spread freedom and democracy to Iran, it is hampered by the natural give-and-take inherent in our own democratic legislative process. We certainly don’t mean to question the patriotism of Messrs. Biden or Lugar or to suggest that either one is rooting for the Axis of Evil nation. Still, Mr. Biden and Mr. Lugar might ponder what message they are sending to those protesters risking their lives for freedom in the streets of Iran. If all those protesters can expect from America is a watered down and desultory message of support, with no money behind it, it just increases the likelihood that the theocracy’s reign will be prolonged, and that one day soon, Americans, our allies, and Iran’s citizens will be facing off against a terrorist-led Iranian regime that no longer is seeking atomic weapons, but that has them.