Mike Pence Undermines the Iranian People

Out of touch conservatives continue to fall off their rocker over the situation in Iran.

President Obama has made it explicitly clear that it would be counter-productive for the U.S. to intervene in the Iranian election and take sides in the political turmoil now roiling the nation. Indeed, even former Bush administration State Department spokesman Nick Burns said:

"President Ahmadinejad would like nothing better than to see aggressive statements, a series of statements, from the United States which try to put the US at the center of this, and I think President Obama is avoiding that, quietly rightly."

And the most important (if not only) Republican spokesperson on foreign policy, Sen. Dick Lugar, concurs with the president and Nick Burns:

The ranking Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee sees no reason for the United States to intervene in the Iranian presidential election dispute at this time. Our position is to allow the Iranians to work out their situation.

And someone with very erratic views on national security, Pat Buchanan, actually made complete and eloquent sense, concurring with the president, Burns and Lugar:

When your adversary is making a fool of himself, get out of the way. That is a rule of politics Lyndon Johnson once put into the most pungent of terms. U.S. fulminations will change nothing in Tehran. But they would enable the regime to divert attention to U.S. meddling in Iran's affairs and portray the candidate robbed in this election, Mir-Hossein Mousavi, as a poodle of the Americans.

So leave it to complete Republican political hack Mike Pence to play into the hands of Iran's oppressive regime and do exactly what Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has been waiting for:

Today I'm introducing a resolution that will do just that. It will express its concern regarding the reported irregularities of the presidential election of 12 June, 2009. It will condemn the violence against demonstrators by pro-government militia in Tehran in the wake of the elections. It will affirm our belief in the universality of individual rights and the importance of democratic and fair elections. And lastly, and most importantly, it will express the support of the American people for all Iranian citizens who struggle for freedom, civil liberties and the protection of the rule of law.

There is nothing that the very people Pence is decrying would like more than to show how this is an "us versus America" battle and paint the dissidents and Mousavi as tools of the American government. And creating at least an appearance of disunity in the American government provides ample ammunition for the regime and Ahmadinajad government to do just that. Pence is treading on some pretty dangerous ground, and he will invariably become a talking point for the thugs and Iranian officials who are attacking the opposition and embarking on violent suppression of dissident Iranians. I just hope Pence understands that political posturing like this should stop at the water's edge, especially when thousands of lives and the future of a nation are at stake.

But for Pence and other Republicans, they really seem to care more about themselves and their own political lives than the actual lives of the Iranian people.

And this is something, at least anecdotally, Iranians deeply understand and appreciate:

I'm an Iranian living in Canada. A few hours ago I talked to my brother who is a student at Sharif University, he was at the big rally yesterday and they were only feet away from Karoubi when they marched from the university entrance to Azadi square. He asked what had Obama had said and I started reading the transcript. When I got to "the United States can be a handy political football, or discussions with the United States [can be]" my brother sighed and said thank God this guy gets it.

Comments

[LiarLiarIraqsOnFire]

For Mike Pence, an ignorant isolationist, 'the water's edge' is the Indiana/Ohio border.

[sonoftherevolution]

PLEASE SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS WITH MR PENCE HERE
https://forms.house.gov/pence/IMA/webforms/contact_form.htm


Mike Pence and Mark Kirk need to be sent packing now.

[Thelma Richards]

Say what you will about Obama and his policies, this situation in Iran is proving that Obama is the right man at the right time. If anybody else was President at this moment, they probably would have set us back 30 years. The other thing it proves to me is that right now, there is no in the republican party with the wisdom to lead America (at least no one who has the courage to buck the stagnant attitude of the republican party).

[RobertHenryEller]

"But for Pence and other Republicans, they really seem to care more about themselves and their own political lives than the actual lives of the Iranian people."

Republicans don't even care about the actual lives of most American people.

Why would anyone expect Republicans to care about non-Americans?

Maybe you're thinking of Republicans like Dwight Eisenhower. Eisenhower, and Republicans like him, ceased to exist a long time ago.

[LiarLiarIraqsOnFire]

Pence cares about Corporate Interests and the money they put into his campaign war chest.

[Tommygun264]

Pence, McSame and the rest of the tough-talking pubs know exactly what they are doing - they want radical hard-liners in power in Iran because it is their only hope for gaining public support for their plans to laying waste to Iran and setting up puppet governments the same way we have done in Iraq, Afghanistan and almost every other country that has ever dared to defy America's military and corporate interests. A more even-keeled, comparatively moderate and diplomatic President representing Iran would make domestic support for war more difficult to drum up, though not entirely impossible, but it would make even our best allies - still smarting from the political prices they have had to pay at home for sticking with America for as long as they did - an extremely hard sell on a bid for support in expanding into Iran. But they can't help themselves - the pubs who stuck with Bush faithfully are like addicted gamblers, too deep in debt to walk away, convinced that one more hand of cards, one more spin of the wheel or one more pull of the lever will bring them the big jackpot, which will not only bring back everything they have lost, but make them winners beyond their wildest dreams. So that's why these pubs seemed determined to keep up the tough talk in hopes that it will encourage the Supreme Leader to dig in his heels and crush the opposition.

[lagumbo]

Pence, Cantor, and Mccain are the same ones whinning when PRESIDENT OBAMA went over seas
and they claim he was apologizing for the UNITED STATES and they didn't like it. These fools just don't get it. What in the hell are they doing in congress. They are only concern about their political careers. The GOP the party that puts their career and money first.They should be ashame.

[jimme]

The G.O.P has to have a boogie man to protect their constituents from,didn't you know that?
So by helping Ahmadinejad stay in power,they in turn are preserving their own power.

So despicable and shameful that more people don't see this.

[moxieme]

Mike Pence and Eric Cantor are bth from Indiana. Where is that spineless bluedog Even Bayh. He apparently does not have the respect of at least 2 Congressional colleagues from his state. They Republicans are nothing more than bullies. What would we take to this gunfight? A knife? Our military is already stretched beyon reason.

[nick1936]

moxieme get your facts straight your acting like Fox Noise here cantor is from Virginia

[Bush-Rolled]

Hey, Mike, could your also introduce a resolution expressing concern regarding the reported irregularities of the U.S. Presidential elections of 2000 and 2004?

[truth at bugmenot]

Some good comments by the true conservatives. Too bad that one of their own was saying that on the morning of the 15th when the news came out that Khamenei was taking another look at the election results:

http://ypnation.net/blogs/let-iran-shoot-its-foot-alone

Someone ought to watch this kid. He's exactly what the Republican party needs in their foreign policy establishment.

[cjk002]

It seems apprpriate at this time to highlight Hillary Clinton's complete ownage of Mike Pence at a house Foreign Affairs committee hearing a few weeks ago:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5mFrML6s0hw

[stardust835]

I wrote Pence asking him to withdraw the resolution assuming he can do that procedurally and also wrote my Congressional Rep (Joe Wilson - SC) asking him to oppose it. I encourage you to write your reps & spence as well. I tried to email Eric Cantor regarding his statement yesterday but kept getting routed away from his site since I don't live in VA or whereever he is from.

Amazing that these guys are so quick to charge in and sabotage the Iran's opposition with their "support" for free speech and democracy, but only with Iran, never with Gaza or the West Bank. Anyway I didn't include that in my emalis. Just keep it clear. The US has bad history and bad blood (like 8 years of war with Iraq, where we supported Saddam) with the Iranians. Everything we touch in the ME turns into a mess, so if we want to support the Iranians in their efforts to get their votes counted, the best we can do is admire them and not provide ammunition politically for Ahmadinejad and the govt to paint them as anti-Iranian. Remember "If you're not with us, you're against us." Its important to remember that for the last several years the US and Israel have been threatening Iran with bombing. Anyway, I'm rambling, but write your reps and ask them to shut the yahoos up and not sabotage the Iranians who are fighting THEIR fight in THEIR country, not ours. Pray too.

[Ravyn]

Thanks for doing this.

[Cavendish]

Where was this zeal for helping the people of other nations when the Myanmar/Burma riots and crack-downs were happening? Perhaps Obama needs to practice reverse psychology, seeing as how the GOP blindly advocates for the opposite of whatever stance he takes.

Way to go Party of No.

[Ravyn]

Exactly. And this is where American hypocrisy exists. You see it when the argument for going to war in Iraq was made to remove a vicious dictator -- when the Bushies weren't talking about Axis of Evil and linking Saddam to 9/11 -- and make Iraq a democracy, to spread democracy. But then other countries have had terrible dictators and we've done nothing. Many argue that we only get involved if there is some advantage to us for doing so which is why many saw us going into Iraq -- including a lot of Iraqis -- because it had huge oil reserves. Myanmar/Burma doesn't get much if any attention from the GOP. And what about the horrible brutal regime in Zimbabwe? Or how much have we done about the situation in Darfur. Have these same members of congress cried out about about any of this? Don't think so.

[NeoStar9]

Lets hope Pelosi has the sense not to allow this to even come up for discussion or even a vote.

[NickConrad]

This is what happens when you have a party full of people who condemn the very notion of 'understanding' and 'the world'.

[Ravyn]

Many of those in the far right of the Republican Party believe the US is the only country in the world that counts and we should be able to do what we like, to whom we like. To hell with the rest of the world is their attitude unless it can be exploited for their own financial and political gains.