Obama harshly condemns Iran crackdown on protesters (says "Naughty, naughty.")

Will Malven
6/24/2009

...I mean come on Barry, where is the leadership? Where is the voice of solidarity with the protesters in Iran? Why haven't you said something like this?

"The Iranian people have a right to free and open elections. Thousands of Iranian are marching in protest because their electoral voices are not being heard by the Iranian ruling council. The brutal measures being used by the Iranian government against its own people are unacceptable to those of us in the international community and will have serious repercussions on any possible future discussions between our two nations.

Today we are all Iranians."

Is that so difficult to say? I seem to recall that following the attacks on 9/11 many voices from many nations all declaring that "Today, we are all Americans," to show support and solidarity with the American people in our time of crisis. Well this is the Iranian peoples' time of crisis and President Barack Obama is behaving like a blushing teen approaching the prom queen to ask for a dance. He's "making a measured response."

The Iranian citizens have been out in the streets fighting and sometimes dying for the same sort of freedom and liberty that we in America enjoy. They have been fighting for the right...the universal right...of self-determination.

And where has our President been? He's been sitting quietly on the sidelines waiting for things to settle down so that he and his good buddy Mahmoud can sit down for a little tête-à-tête. President Obama seems more concerned with maintaining good relations with the despot Ahmadinejad than he is in lending American moral support to those fighting for freedom in Iran.

President Obama's response has been somewhat slow in developing. Rueters, adopting the White House line, is describing President Obama's latest foray into the world of diplomacy with Iran as being "harsh;" I would describe it as his being tepid:

"Obama harshly condemns Iran crackdown on protesters

By John Whitesides and Jeff Mason
Tue Jun 23, 2009 6:03pm EDT

---The Democratic president, facing heavy criticism from Republicans that he was being too timid in backing street protests over Iran's contested election, said the United States was "appalled and outraged" by the violence.

"I strongly condemn these unjust actions, and I join with the American people in mourning each and every innocent life that is lost," Obama said
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He called the video of an Iranian women killed in the streets, which has become a staple of news coverage of the protests, "heartbreaking" and said it made clear the violence against the protesters was "fundamentally unjust.
"
"In 2009, no iron fist is strong enough to shut off the world from bearing witness to the peaceful pursuit of justice," he said.

Mr. President Obama, where is your spine? Where is your JFK's "Ich bin eine Berliner?" [Alright, I know that what he said actually translates to I am a pastry, but at least the spirit was there, at least the solidarity was present.] Where is your President Reagan's "Mr. President Gorbachev, tear down this wall?"

In response to the shooting death of the woman known only as "Neda," this weak president could only muster enough courage to say:

"I think there's something fundamentally unjust about that."

Really? Is he joking? Is that the best he can do?

He also keeps repeating "we don't know how this is all going to shake out," as if how we respond as a nation should depend on how events in Iran turn out.

Our nation's response to event in Iran should not be the result of a cold political calculation focused on how it makes the president look in foreign newspapers, it should always be a reflection of our national heritage and our belief in the right of every person in every nation to self-determination. On this President Bush got it right and President Obama is getting it terribly wrong.

Expressions of sorrow or outrage are not the same as expressing your overt and strong support for the people now engaged in a fight for their freedom.

President Obama keeps telling us that he doesn't want to inject himself into Iranian internal politics, that he doesn't want America to become the focus of the Iranian government's propaganda against the struggling protesters...What?

Is he so shallow that he doesn't know that regardless of what America does, the Iranian powers that be will decry "American involvement," whether we speak out in support of the protesters or not? Is he so gullible that he believes the ruling council, which has came into power through acts of brutality and maintains its control through those same acts of repression is an honest broker of news and won't use America as a political "football?"

American didn't sit on the sidelines when Stalin attempted to starve Berlin into submission, we ran the Berlin Airlift. We weren't concerned with how the Soviet Union would portray us in Pravda, we were concerned with preserving the freedom of the people of Berlin.

In the depths of the Cold War when the Soviet Union attempted to place their mid-range ballistic missiles in Cuba President Kennedy wasn't concerned with how he might be portrayed in Pravda. He took a firm (if somewhat tardy) stance against the actions of Nikita Khrushchev and in making that stance forced the Soviet Union to back down (yes I know he made the concession of removing the mid-range missiles from Turkey, but they were old and of little strategic value by then).

When President Ronald Reagan walked out of the talks in Reykjavik over the Strategic Defense Initiative and later, standing at the Brandenburg Gate, told Soviet Premiere Gorbachev, "Tear down this wall," he wasn't cowering fear that the Soviet propaganda machine might blame the unrest on America, he was expressing-as all American Presidents have expressed-American solidarity with those who were engaged in a struggle for freedom and self-determination.

To see an American President acting so tentatively in the face of open and brutal oppression is sickening. That an American Liberal (as our President is) generally takes this ineffectual path is predictable; that more Iranian citizens may die because of it is disgusting and unforgivable.

It was a sad day for America, for freedom, and for the world when this man became the President of the United States. How many more will die in the pursuit of "hope and change?"

Long Live Our American Republic!!!!

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