Today’s Der Spiegel explains why Obama/Washington is “playing it safe” with regards to Iran.
Barack Obama is taking a cautious approach to the disputed Iranian elections and has even said there is little difference between the candidates. The US president knows the ayatollahs yield the real power in Tehran — and doesn’t want to jeopardize negotiations with Iran over its nuclear program.
Obama notes that the differences between Ahmadinejad and Mousavi, “in terms of their actual policies, may not be as great as has been advertised.”
I say – “So??”
Here’s the thing about massive public protests. It shows that the people give a rip. Imagine (not to equate this, but for a closer to home example) for a second if John McCain had won our election. By a landslide. By such a landslide that McCain even won Obama’s home town.
We all KNOW it’s really Congress that runs things, right. So who cares who the President is. Besides their policies are pretty close to the same. Immigration/same sex marriage/money for bailouts/Guantanamo/Torture etc.
See how that plays? Not very well – and there’s not even any shooting or beating here.
Obama has decided his rhetoric is not quite good enough to
a) first give support to people getting beaten and killed for being pissed off about a clearly sham election in what they took to be a democracy and then
b) deal with whoever in the end of this phase wins. Not such a great schmoozer then is he?
The Obama administration knows that if Ahmadinejad remains in office, then it will have to work with him in its pursuit of negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program. Accusing him of involvement in an election fraud conspiracy would only make this dialogue much more difficult and could also serve in Iran as propaganda against the US.
So – “Under the bus for you people in Iran who believe fair elections are your right. Under the bus. We have far more important things to deal with than a fraudulent election. Look!! See – I’ve even got my Secretary of State working to stop human trafficking of prostitutes because clear good and evil topics without any nuance that the left agrees on are one subject this government can easily stand against. See – she is even writing important letters to important newspapers and everything!! I’m very busy.”
No matter what happens in Iran, the prevailing theory here is that Obama is the one giving hope to the universe.
“The stormy Iranian elections are one more sign of how the world has been shaken up in the age of Barack Obama,” writes Ignatius in the Washington Post.
I’ve read similar in many places. Interestingly nowhere other than on blogs do you read that Iraq, the people of Iraq, the hope of Iraq is what might just be spreading it’s influence to it’s neighbor. Is it true? I don’t know. It’s certainly MORE plausible than the Obama Cairo speech from a week ago. Seriously – would you be worked up to riot levels from a speech you just heard of last week?
The Saudi’s (another bastion of “freedom”) are a bit worried about this freedom thing. How can I tell? Because these huge protests are not in the headlines of the Arab News. But news of dengue fever, dna testing and a report on the Mumbai attack did.
Would Mousavi be better than Ahmadinejad? I don’t know. I hear Mousavi makes more sense when he talks but that both want the same things. That might make for harder worldwide condemnation of nuclear ambitions. On the other hand Mousavi certainly has a freer wife who has been an inspiration to millions.
It doesn’t matter. The people are outraged about a clearly rigged election. Voting is one of the very few things that most of us have any power over. If you screw with it – people will be pissed. (Unless they are so downtrodden that they know Saddam is going to win with 100% of the vote anyway!)
Read this story from the Spectator: (ht Scott)
What is weakening the regime is not Obama’s appeasement. It is resistance. It is the fact that the people did not take their stolen election lying down but turned out in their hundreds of thousands to demand justice – and are prepared to die for it – that has rocked the regime. With a reported twenty people dead yesterday and hundreds more injured at the hands of the regime’s thugs, the people have now been galvanised still further. Staring at what might well be a true counter-revolutionary moment, the regime is wobbling, and has now announced there will be a recount of the vote.
And still Obama is getting it wrong. Not surprising — having made nice with the tyrants and thus undermined the democrats he has been badly caught out and clearly doesn’t know what to do. With whom does he now side? His reaction — as promulgated by his fawning acolyte Miliband — is to be even-handed and support neither. How appalling. The President of America should have immediately condemned in the strongest possible terms this brutal onslaught against people trying to claim their democratic rights, and supported them against injustice and oppression.
And read the Anchoress who has a nice roundup.
And read Twitter (#IranElection)- just don’t believe everything you read – because the people in Iran are longing to be, fighting to be, dying to be heard. So go listen.
And read Jonah Goldberg who begs “Side with Freedom, Mr. President”
And read of the President of France having bigger balls than our own President in the Wall Street Journal.
And read John Kranz of Three Sources defending the defense of liberty with passion.
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