Where’s Obama?
By Dave Hitt on Jun 23, 2009 in Politics
The protests in Iran have been going on for a week a half. They are not a flash in the pan, and despite being murdered and beaten the Iranian people are still protesting and refusing to accept the results of the faked election.
And what’s Obama’s reaction? Half-hearted platitudes about freedom and people choosing their own destiny. I just watched his press conference and when he was directly asked about supporting them he talked about the international community and standards of behavior and blah blah blah.
The last president who actually spoke out against tyranny was Ronald Reagan. He will be remembered as the man who demanded “Mr. Gorbachev, Tear Down This Wall!” When the wall came down during the first Bush presidency, instead of cheers and congratulations the White House response was essentially “Meh.”
When this first started Obama’s reluctance to speak in favor of the protesters was understandable. He didn’t know if this was going to last, he wanted to keep his options open with President Imanutjob and he was afraid that offering support of any kind would be used by Iran’s leaders to argue that the US was behind the protests. But the protests have been going on long enough without our support that no one will believe we have anything to do with it. It’s time for Obama to grow a pair.
He needs to announce, loudly and clearly, that we support the protester’s demands for a fair election. He should tell the world, “The United States will only deal with the fairly elected officials of Iran. We will not engage with, nor will we recognize, the current administration, as it is quite clear they do not represent the Iranian people, who have a right to a fair election. We will not have any dealings with Iran, diplomatically or otherwise, until they get one. “ This would offer a great deal of hope and inspiration to the Iranians who are dying in the streets.
That sounds a little clumsy, but I’m sure his writers can do much better. They need to come up with a line as memorable as “Mr. Gorbachev,Tear Down This Wall.” The first line that comes to my mind is “Mr. Ahmadinejad, go fuck yourself,” which is one of the many reasons I’m not a presidential speech writer.
As someone who is growing more and more disillusioned with Obama I really don’t have much “hope” that he’s going to “change” who he is during this presidency.
It’s becoming more and more apparent that Obama is going to continually try to please as many people as possible by not taking a position on anything. All of his “present” votes in the Illinois and US Senates that I dismissed as dirty campaigning on the part of his opponents I’m now seeing as a warning sign I should have heeded.
He really didn’t seem that bad and didn’t seem to be the huge “people pleaser” Clinton was especially when he ran against her. A president cannot simply “no comment” his way out of every issue, but given Obama’s track record, it seems to be his M.O.
I hope I’m wrong, but it looks like we have another ineffectual Carter presidency on our hands. Obama-the-candidate I think was extremely qualified for the job and had the potential to be a great president. It’s too bad Obama-the-president has apparently kidnapped Obama-the-candidate and won’t tell us where he is.
Brian Stilson | Jun 23, 2009 | Reply
Remember one thing: Every problem has an obvious and simple solution. That obvious and simple solution is also usually wrong.
Bill Vincent | Jun 28, 2009 | Reply
Love your podcasts all the time, agree with them about half the time. First visit to the blog.
What I’m hearing is that the Iranian opposition considers that official US govt support for them (as opposed to their general civil rights to peacefully protest, etc.) would be the kiss of death to their movement. Even without the fact that Ahmadinejad is already claiming the movement is foreign in origin — I can’t blame the Iranian people (as opposed to the insane government) for (1) wanting to take care of this themselves, as a civil rights movement and not a revolution, and (2) not really wanting another round of the type of US “help” that landed with them with Reza Pahlavi and, probably, the ensuing revolution.
Blowback’s a bitch.
Pennsylvaniac | Jul 9, 2009 | Reply
I have been disappointed in a lot of Obama’s decisions. However, this isn’t one of them.
It is time you get Smartenized about foreign policy. Any strong statement by the U.S. government backing the protests will be used as an excuse to ratchet up the crackdown. Ahmadinejad would say this is further evidence the protests are the creation of outside powers. He would then gleefully snatch up all the leaders and you would never hear from them again. Of course, he is already doing this to a certain extent, but let’s not give him anymore cover than he already has.
Even the majority of the idiots realize the U.S. ideologically supports these protests. Adding a few strong words from the President or a senior government official won’t do anything positive.
Chad | Aug 1, 2009 | Reply