Obama is rightly ignoring the calls from both the right as well as within his own administration to take a stronger stand on the situation in Iran. These pleas -- such as from Sen. John McCain, Rep. Mike Pence, Paul Wolfowitz, or Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden, as reported in the New York Times Thursday -- merely reflect the stale American solipsism that's to blame for our sundered image abroad in years past. Obama has made notable progress in polishing the previous administration's tarnish, but a single slip-up at the wrong moment could reverse it all in a second.
If Obama were to speak out and side with Mousavi in the current Iranian uprising, it would transform a legitimate, organic popular movement into a GOP teabag party. As many may recall, the conservative teabag movement in April was an embarrassing flop. Though it donned the mask of a grassroots uprising, it was quickly revealed to be naught but astro-turf (fake grassroots) -- carefully orchestrated by conservative corporate lobbyists, Fox News and even the Republican Party. The result was that nobody took the "popular movement" seriously, regardless of its scale, prevalence, message or sincerity.
Those who wish for Obama to adopt a stronger tone seem to be under the delusion that everyone doesn't already know exactly where he stands. Beyond being mistakenly impetuous, explicitly choosing a side in the current conflict without knowing who will emerge on top offers no possible benefit. Though the Iranian regime already blames the West, the Iranian people are not stupid. They know full well how to spot propaganda. And fortunately, as reflected by the Supreme Leader's Friday prayer today, Europe is taking the brunt of the blame, especially the United Kingdom.
This bodes well for Obama's position. And as Suzanne Maloney of the Brookings Institution has noted, this is as it should be, considering that Europe actually has a presence in Tehran, as opposed to the US who cut off all relations in 1979. Putting the United States on the front-line would play directly into the propagandists' hands -- the propagandists who still control the levers of power in the Islamic Republic, I might add.
At the ninth National Iranian American Council (NIAC) conference on US-Iran relations Wednesday, a roundtable of Iran experts agreed that Obama's tacit stand for free expression against violence was sufficient. And that anything further would be counterproductive. According to Maloney, it is important that we not "make ourselves the story, thus undermining or endangering people on the streets...Senator McCain should be reminded of this."
Those who insist that Obama throw his hat in the ring do not hide their lack of faith in the Iranian demonstrators. They shape their argument as pro-democracy and pro-freedom of expression, but they ground it in the arrogant belief that an American endorsement is the sine qua non of any successful democratic political movement. Let the Iranian's have their moment, they know whose side we're on. Presuming that they require the explicit validation that comes with an American presidential statement is to fall prey to the same patronizing self-aggrandizement that has for so long plagued our dealings abroad. Obama is wise to ignore his "expert" advisers and the "experts" from the past administration.
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Great Post
When my husband's family found out our son was going in the Navy and training to be a pilot they were so proud of him but they said they hope he never has to bomb them . This I hope is telling that our heart partially rests in Iran but our loyaltyies are with the US. By having our feet in both Iran and America you know the bad and good points of each country.
If this is going to be a revolution people are going to die. We in the US cannot help them. All we can offer them is moral support. Iran's present government is not going down without a fight. This would be Iran's civil war, brother against brother. My son will probably end up in Afghanistan in the future but we cannot send my son and the rest of our military now. All those praying for freedom want from us is moral support.
An attack which would undoubtedly have killed many of those people who are out in the streets protesting.
Also: no matter how this turns out President Obama is going to have to engage the government of Iran in one way or another. I certainly hope it will be positive engagement. That we get normalized relations with Iran. Maybe even an embassy.
No matter what happens, taking a hard line only empowers the Conservatives. Whose days may very well be over. Even if they do win in the short term.
Too bad the GOP doesn't understand the first thing about these people in the streets of Iran, and too bad they were chomping at the bit to drop bombs on them 6 months ago.
You can keep cutting my comment, but I know what the facts are, and I know you are wrong, and I know you haven't even done any research. I know you have no credibility on this subject.
As for your qualms, I invite you to read Jane Hamsher's exposés regarding the Tea Parties: here, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jane-hamsher/the-corporate-lobbyists-b_b_186367.html
and here, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jane-hamsher/a-teabagger-timeline-koch_b_187312.html
I trust you will find them quite revealing. And though I dare not dispute the sincerity of your own personal involvement, I think it is fair to say the "grassroots" movement on the larger scale was artificial at best.
Khamenie's message of defiance was crystal clear: 'We are ruled by God, world opinion be damned! If we must kill thousands to save God's ultimate revolutionary regime, the light and salvation of Islam, then so be it! "LET IRAN BURN SO THAT ISLAM PREVAILS!" said Imam Khomeine of blessed memory.'
No concessions to the democratic opposition in Iran means no concessions to Obama and the democratic West on nuclear proliferation and support of radical Islam throughout the region and world. It's onwards and upwards to a nuclear armed state as the mullahs add to their arsenal of terror and blood the ultimate weapon of murder and death.
The people of Iran are the oppressed SUBJECTS of a brutal clerical dictatorship with unlimited ambitions; they are not citizens in their own country let alone something so preposterous as "citizens of the world." World citizenry only makes sense in the context of a one world democratic state-a free world order without borders-which is a utopian ideal and doesn't exist except in the minds of unrealistic fools like our spaced out extraterrestial president and oither people on this blog who imagine that they've "transcended political time and space.".
This is as bad as the time they all dog piled on Terri Schivo for a political photo-op.
The conservative, "keep government out of people's lives party" should revisit their basic principles.
"the House:
"(1) expresses its support for all Iranian citizens who embrace the values of freedom, human rights, civil liberties, and rule of law;
"(2) condemns the ongoing violence against demonstrators by the government of Iran and pro-government militias, as well as the ongoing government suppression of independent electronic communication through interference with the Internet and cell phones; and
"(3) affirms the universality of individual rights and the importance of democratic and fair elections."