“When I see violence directed at peaceful protestors, when I see peaceful dissent being suppressed, wherever that takes place, it is of concern to me and it’s of concern to the American people. That is not how governments should interact with their people… I do believe that something has happened in Iran where there is a questioning of the kinds of antagonistic postures towards the international community that have taken place in the past, and that there are people who want to see greater openness and greater debate and want to see greater democracy. How that plays out over the next several days and several weeks is something ultimately for the Iranian people to decide.”
– President Obama, 6/16/2009 on the Iranian protests
Normally I’m with the say it prainly and clearly – and somewhat loudly – crowd. Obama is clearly of the “speak softly” crowd and is currently withholding the “big stick”. This is an internal affair and since our history of messing with Iranian politics is pretty horrific, our prez is doing the right thing by standing by and pointing out that violence and repression are bad. Besides, the guy at the top and his cronies will still be in charge no matter who gets to be president there; and those cats have never liked us.
Meanwhile the GOP are running around like idiots and screaming for Obama to condemn the election as a sham and, presumably, send in Force Recon to back the protestors.
The Iranians already see anything we are doing as meddling. Why antagonize them further?
“A state television channel in Iran says the government summoned the Swiss ambassador, who represents U.S. interests in Iran, to complain about American interference. The two countries broke off diplomatic relations after the 1979 Islamic Revolution. An English-language state-run channel quoted the government as calling Western interference ‘intolerable.'”
One, even if the opposition is seen to win last week’s election, they are STILL more conservative than even the current whack job crowd of conservatives we have. Two, where the fuck was the GOP where Bush stole two elections in THIS country? Their hypocrisy stinks to high heaven.
Even the media is missing the friggin point, as this short-sighted article clearly shows.
Look, just because eight years of Bush taught us that knee jerk emotional reactions were the approved policy response doesn’t mean Bush and Co. were ever RIGHT in their overreactions to situations. Quite the contrary, in fact.
“(Obama) should speak out that this is a corrupt, flawed sham of an election and that the Iranian people have been deprived of their rights.”
– McCain, over-reacting as usual
Some are billing this as Obama v. McCain 2. If so, Obama still wins on both points and correctness.
As a segue, this article points out how much worse we would be if John Sidney McCain III was nominally in charge these days.
The core point is this however: we have no dogs in this fight and no real reason to jump in other than to express an interest in the will of the people prevailing without much violence. Yep, that’s it.
Besides, weren’t the neocons actually pulling FOR Ahmadinejad?
The GOP is forgetting one important lesson from the Bible studies they supposed go to:
“A gentle answer turns away rage, but a harsh word stirs up anger.”
– Proverbs 15:1
