One might say, “Leave it alone. It’s not our business.” Some have said, “Who are we to tell them how to run their own government business?” There’s a point to that, when a people are fully engaged in electing their own leaders, when their voices are expressed freely & heard easily by the world. Even our President said so, in his statement about Iran’s election, “When I see violence directed @ peaceful protesters, when I see peaceful dissent being suppressed, wherever that takes place, it is of concern to me & it is of concern to the Am. People…”
So what’s worrying the tucked-away-place in the back of my brain? Not two breaths before the above he’d said, “…I have deep concerns about the election, & I think that the world has deep concerns about the election. You’ve seen in Iran some initial reaction from the Supreme Leader that indicates he understands the Iranian people have deep concerns about the election.” How can one man use so many words, trying to act like he’s saying so much, only to say so painfully little?
Maybe my disquiet relates to how the “Supreme Leader” of this 'peaceful religion' treats the most defenseless of his own people. Maybe it’s something about my country’s President referring to a theocratic despot as “the Supreme Leader”, as if he must approach said lofty potentate with reverence, or suffer some secret consequence. Maybe it’s that despite Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s “firm line against any threats to the regime, warning Iranians to unite behind the country's Islamic system (as authorities imposed severe restrictions on independent media),” that these oppressed & desperate people began to get their voices heard.
Does cutting off internet access, cell phone connections, & information access to foreign & domestic Iranian media not qualify to our President as “peaceful dissent being suppressed”?
I don’t believe Mr. Obama is really as stupid as these statements make him seem. And this is partly why I’m bothered, because he isn’t stupid. His final statement on the matter, “It’s not productive, given the history of US/Iranian relations, to be seen as meddling – the US Pres – meddling in Iranian elections…” sent me on important errands of research. It begged my question, “Why not? Why shouldn’t the strong & powerful stand up for the voice of the oppressed?" (Shouldn’t the Community Organizer schtick come in handy here?) These questions sneaked to the back of my brain & settled themselves quietly under my consciousness…
Until this morning, when I read Andrew Klavan’s “Iran and the Tragedy of Bad Ideas”. Mr. Klavan was wrestling with some of the same thoughts I was, from the angle of “The Stoning of Soraya M” a true story of an Iranian woman falsely accused, convicted & stoned to death for adultery that she did not commit.
There is SOMETHING DESPERATELY WRONG with a society that throws its accused -- helpless, defenseless & stripped of her humanity -- into the blood-thirsty, drooling, yawning jaws of Theocratic Tyranny. There is something desperately wrong with that. The people who fall victim to it must be given voice. Who better than the American President to give them stamina?
Mr. Klavan describes the tragedy of Obama’s weakness this way:
“Tragedies of bad ideas are the most common, pervasive and destructive man-made mass disasters. Yet our thinking class has become powerless to oppose them or even recognize them for what they are….too many of our intellectuals are themselves ensnared in a bad idea: the notion that no system or government is inherently better than any other... Thus there are no enduring human truths…
This bad idea has all but silenced our nation at a moment when the world most needs our voice. Thousands of people in Iran are marching in the streets, protesting a sham election, heroically risking life and limb to try to tear some little breathing space in the smothering shroud of theocracy. Yet President Barack Obama, the leader of the most powerful free nation on earth, responds with mealy-mouthed strategic dithering. ..There comes a time in the affairs of men when bad ideas can be -- and therefore must be -- powerfully opposed by good ones.
Compare, if you can bear it, President Ronald Reagan's response to the 1982 crackdown on the Polish union Solidarity by the Soviet Union: "The struggle in the world today for the hearts and minds of mankind is based on one simple question: Is man born to be free, or slave? In country after country, people have long known the answer to that question. We are free by divine right." In less than a decade, in startlingly large measure because this one idea found so mighty a voice, the Soviet Union was gone…”
Thus, the niggling of my consciousness awakened to new & more sinister questions, ones I really do hate to admit. (Doesn’t he get that this society, this 'peaceful religion' oppresses its people, especially its women?) This man has a wife, young daughters…
I get it. I’m a woman who has the right to speak, so I’ll voice the lingering, nagging questions about my President:
Why will he not put the full power of the American President’s voice behind those who’re fighting, literally, for free & fair elections?
Why will he not, as his predecessors have done, support freedom “wherever it takes place”?
What is he doing here?
And whose side is he on, anyway?
When a people’s freedom is squelched by the iron grip of tyranny,
the strong & powerful should stand up for the oppressed…
Would that someone had done it for Soraya M.
~~~
22 comments:
Diplomacy is a tricky thing, but as I have been saying to folks all day, sometimes a president just has to call out evil for what it is and let the chips fall where they may. There is no question about the right and wrong going on in Iran right now. To show reservation about condemning it is in effect to condone it.
“It’s not productive, given the history of US/Iranian relations, to be seen as meddling – the US Pres – meddling in Iranian elections…”
Yes, but they don't see any problem meddling in Israel. BO should let them do as they wish, too, right? Yeah, right...
I've had my two cents on Operation Ajax and the moral equivalency spin artists at the leftie sites.
The president has to say something clear to support these protesters if he believes in freedom. I don't think that he thinks of freedom as a right, though.
Susannah: Blue and I are discussing this on my site, as well. I think he should say something, but at the same time, what good will it do? Should we go in, again, and change their government? They HAD a democracy; we overthrew it and put in the current regime. Where does it stop? Should we bomb them? Should we just say something strongly worded (with no real backing)...
Really, we tied our own hands on this one.
Very good post, Suz. Obama is trying so hard to be a statesman, yet he is grossly underqualified, so he sounds like a boob.
If he had true neutrality on his mind, he sure has a problem implementing it in his dealings with Israel! 'Course, if he left Israel alone, the hate-moslem problem would have been solved a decade ago. Naa, for some reason he really wants to share the bed with the moslems. I dunno if he thinks he'll get free oil or what, but he is NOT neutral. His arrogance in wooing the moslems was pushed to the point of rewriting history to include moslems in as many technological advances as he could in the hour of on board memory his teleprompter has. Selling lies as the truth never works for long. It'll probably work for another 3 years. I hope Israel will hang with us until then.
Keep the faith my friend and we will let the world know that Obama and his socialists do NOT speak for us.
We are told that President Barack Obama has said relatively little over the past 10 days because he does not want to feed perceptions that America is "meddling." Fine. He's being overly cautious, in my view. But let's assume his expressed concerns are genuine. Why does he seem to believe that he has only two choices: American meddling or virtual silence? It's not caution, it's cowardice. He foolishly congratulated the "winner" of a fraudulent election, now he's trying to ignore the bloody birth of another free society. This man is an embarrassment to the entire West. Take a stand for human rights for crying out loud!
Great post. We need to stay alert.
"Can you prove your innocence?" 9from the preview)is a line that tells all.
That President BO could remain silent in the face of that attitude is beyond the pale.
It is proof positive that he hates the very ideals of America.
And yet he enjoys at 60% approval rating.
Unfathonable.
I am really ashamed and disappointed with my fellow Americans; the blind, selfish saps who put these Neanderthals in charge of our country! The Obama administration is clueless, politically dysfunctional and self-serving, and without an iota of common sense. They have NO historical or spiritual understanding of human freedom and liberty. Fools! All of them, fools!
I didn't think it was possible for me to hate this administration any more than I already do.
Obama tied his own hands on this one by becoming all buddies with Ahmadinejad and basically praising Iran for being such a "good" state.
With these riots, however, Obama had a real opportunity to take the high ground and condemn tyrannical actions against the Iranian people.
Another missed opportunity to get the Iranian people on the side of the US.
Update! Obama has condemned the violence against the protesters!
"Update! Obama has condemned the violence against the protesters!"
Thank you James. Condemnation should have been his IMMEDIATE, unwavering response, not his simpering politico-speak based on 2weeks' worth of heat.
My opinion stands. He's gutless & has NO business representing the interests of the American people on the international stage.
Susannah:
Don't be shy. Let us know how you really feel about Obama.
;-)
PJ~ Bingo.
Cristina~ Exactly. A little consistency would be in order here, no?
James~ "I think he should say something, but at the same time, what good will it do?" Clearly I agree on the first part. The good that it would do is expressed here:
"Why will he not put the full power of the American President’s voice behind those who’re fighting, literally, for free & fair elections?"
and here "When a people’s freedom is squelched by the iron grip of tyranny, the strong & powerful should stand up for the oppressed…"
I said nothing about any kind of military action. We're not bullies. I disagree that our hands are tied. PJ's right-diplomacy is a tricky thing, but the voice of the American President (whether some like to believe this or not) is a very powerful thing. He is SQUANDERING opportunities for advancement of the oppressed who crave freedom!
RWL~ You & Cristina are of the same mind about Israel. Here's hoping others see this too. His intimacy w/ the Mulsim world is getting really creepy. It makes me ask more questions than are in my post, honestly.
JKW~ Welcome! I haven't seen you here before! "Cowardice" Precisely.
Joe! Great to see you! Hope you're feeling well. Yes, 'can you prove your innocence?' My husband & I watched a youtube vid. of the film's director speaking. He explains in much more detail the way of life that these people face. He goes on to say that women are powerless to prove their innocence (& they must do it in 1 day, & when they can't - b/c they CAN'T - they are convicted). He emphasized that this goes on TODAY in Iran. Yes - unfathomable.
JKW~ "They have NO historical or spiritual understanding of human freedom and liberty." Indeed. Now let me see if I get it...You don't support this administration, right?
Eurip! (That's just fun to say!) "Another missed opportunity to get the Iranian people on the side of the US." He has had beautiful opportunities & squandered them all.
p.s. Meticulous, intense, emotional, loud (at times) - I've been called, in spades. Shy - never. ;)
Fuzz! Thanks for your comment too! Sorry I skipped over it. We absolutely need to stay alert. We have friends ("John Burch Society" folks) & his eclamations at times like these - "Keep your powder dry!"
Seeing as how reluctant Obama has been to condemn the actions of the theocracy, much less offer any support to the protesters, I'm worried is that we're going to see this repeated over and over, with worse results each time.
My even worse fear is that I suspect that nothing could make Obama commit troops to any cause abroad.
He hasn't pulled out of the conflicts started by the 43rd president, yet, but I doubt that anything - perhaps a nuclear blast aside - would make him send in US forces.
And once the rest of the world realizes that, it's gonna burn.
Argh, darn typos!
Good job on a great blog Susannah ..and So very true!
So I guess the big question is will obama have Achmahdinijhad over for July 4th BBQ?
As I understand it, the plan goes something like that now.
And whose side is he on, anyway?
Susannah: That question haunts me almost every day. I’m afraid to answer it, although I think I know the answer. Your blog is great, keep the good word going!
"How can one man use so many words, trying to act like he’s saying so much, only to say so painfully little?"
He is so predictable in his rhetoric and oratory skills. Never a solid committed answer will be gleaned from such a vapid narcissistic empty suit. Somebody is pulling the strings, the question is "Who"?
He will never pull the full power of the American President's voice just as would be kings could never pull the sword from the stone. He is illegitimate in every sense of the word and operates under false authority. No country can respect that.
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