The President Speaks on Iran
We do not know where this Iranian uprising will go. It could come and go as quickly as the events of Tiananmen Square in China 20 years ago. There was unrest, but it was confined largely to that one square, and it was quickly suppressed, with much bloodshed. There are many endearing images, images that we who watched it unfold on TV, remember well, but China and the world has gone on pretty much as usual since. Twenty years ago the Berlin Wall fell, and soon after the Soviet Union collapsed. Eastern Europe is much different today than it was two decades ago. It is much freer. But today, Russia has returned to some of its old ways, and it is also offering at least tacit support to the current Iranian regime -- as has China.
President Obama spoke to this issue today in his press conference. He made the strongest statement yet, but made it clear that this is not about America. It's about Iran, and what the Iranians want. For us to become too involved will allow the regime to make this about us, and make opponents of the regime out to be traitors to their people. Most non-partisan observers who understand Iran believe that Obama has chosen the right path. With few exceptions Iranian Americans have commended his position. So, today we hear from him directly:
President Obama spoke to this issue today in his press conference. He made the strongest statement yet, but made it clear that this is not about America. It's about Iran, and what the Iranians want. For us to become too involved will allow the regime to make this about us, and make opponents of the regime out to be traitors to their people. Most non-partisan observers who understand Iran believe that Obama has chosen the right path. With few exceptions Iranian Americans have commended his position. So, today we hear from him directly:
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Comments
Juan Cole makes some good points.
We are still waiting for our own rights to be fully restored.
Washington and the Iran Protests:
Would they be Allowed in the US?
...The number of demonstrators arrested in Tehran on Saturday is estimated at 550 or so, which is less than those arrested by the NYPD for protesting Bush policies in 2004.
I applaud the Iranian public's protests against a clearly fraudulent election, and deplore the jackboot tactics that the regime is using to quell them. But it is important to remember that the US itself was moved by Bush and McCain toward a 'Homeland Security' national security state that is intolerant of public protest and throws the word 'terrorist' around about dissidents. Obama and the Democrats have not addressed this creeping desecration of the Bill of Rights, and until they do, the pronouncements of self-righteous US senators and congressmen on the travesty in Tehran will be nothing more that imperialist hypocrisy of the most abject sort...
more at http://www.juancole.com/2009/06/washington-and-iran-protests-would-they.html
David Mc