You know its bad when the historical record shows president Carter is more bellicose than you are. It is even worse when Vice-President Kerry is telling you to take a braver stand. From the NYT:
We are all inspired by Iran’s peaceful demonstrations, the likes of which have not been seen there in three decades. Our sympathies are with those Iranians who seek a more respectful, cooperative relationship with the world.
This guy is so far over his head we need to send him an oxygen line, and a lifeboat on the off chance he makes it to the surface. Righ now, Obama is drowning. ‘What took you so long?’, was the question of the hour posed by one reporter. The answer is Obama’s world view allows him to sit down without preconditions with just about any dictator. But he won’t do an interview on Fox? That folks is a gutless president.
The American tradition is for our Presidents to stand on the side of freedom. Kennedy in German declared his solidarity with the population of Berlin in 1960. Reagan called on MR Gorbachev to, “tear down this wall.” Mr Obama contribution to this conversation is:
“The difference between Ahmadinejad and Mousavi in terms of their actual policies may not be as great as has been advertised,”
The messiah misses the point. The people of Iran voted for change, something one would thing the dolt-in-chief would get. The people of Iran had an election stolen from them. The people of Iran are being beaten an shot for demanding that their voices be heard. This president is not standing with voices that cry for freedom and democracy. He is worried about antagonizing the Mullahs and bring them to blaim the protest on us, which they did anyway. That folks is one seriously gutless president.
Ban Ki-moon is more bellicose than this tragic failure is!
I think he’s lacking something more than guts.
Thankfully, not everyone is as militantly ignorant as the author of this piece. The US has zero standing (for good reason) in Iran. To say anything more than has been said would be unwelcome by all (not just the incumbent gov’t). I know that Everything Obama Does Or Says Sucks seems to be the guiding light around here, but you could, occasionally, reach a bit beyond that.
MB,
When the media stops carrying water for the Democrats, I will stop laughing at your comment. What do you expect us to do? With the likes of MSM fawning and swooning over this lightweights every word, I see it as a public service pointing out the emperor has no clothes.
I agree with you that the US has no standing. That is a self inflicted and untreated wound. Therefore a more muscular foreign policy is out. But there is nothing to stop Obama from taking a more principled stand and pointing out that the thuggery inflicted on the Iranians by there own government is outrageous. He did not do so.
It took several days of badgering by his own cabinet, members of congress and an American public for him to move from lackadaisical to tepid.
Well, you have to admit it. The past few days have shown that Obama can be swayed a bit if the public criticism is loud and broad enough. We should keep that in mind for future use.
The Usurper will always side with the Muslim leaders, not the people.
His silence is as obvious as his cowering bow. He will never, never do anything to insult the Muslim leadership.
The Mulatto, just as his father, does not believe in capitalism, etc.
The Dipshit may have violated the Logan Act when he campaigned for his cousin in Africa who wants to turn Kenya into a Muslim state pushing the rights of women and the people back hundreds of years.
” The US has zero standing (for good reason) in Iran. ”
Mike Huckabee made a keen observation when referring to the protests in Iran. He rightly noted that many of the protester’s signs were in English, and not Farsi, and were likely targeted at us, and not their fellow Iranians.
He has a point, and while I believe that among the theocracy in Iran, yes, we have zero standing. But among a populace yearning for freedom ? Doubt it..
Dans, one of the funniest scenes I have ever seen in my life. It is the mid-1980’s. I am sitting in the transfer waiting room at Frankfurt airport in West Germany. A plane arrives from Tehran with many, many Iranian women aboard. When those women hit the waiting room, burkas and headscarves went flying all over the place. These women practically undressed and then dressed in front of me. By the time they got to the line for their continuing flight to Paris, they were all dolled up in low cut outfits with skirts up to the ying-yang, wearing fancy shoes pulled out of their purses, and sporting jewelry you wouldn’t believe. And then came those on the return flight to Tehran. Just the opposite, with a lot of sad faces. Ah, blessed freedom!! I’m still laughing twenty years later.
“noted that many of the protester’s signs were in English”
I have a friend that was born and raised in Pakistan, the school that they attended was an English language school. It is not uncommon for middle easterners to be fully bilingual.
Most of the English language schools are upper class schools.
I have known people from Israel, Iraq and others that were also taught English in school.
I would say that their signs were in English so that more of the world could read their signs and hear their pleas and witness the situation.
HE, good point in your last paragraph of #9.
Jacob, don’t be such a simp! The assahola and friends are doing everything they can to make this out as a western conspiracy. They’re using their state-controlled media to hammer home the idea that these protesters in the streets are being manipulated by the US and Great Britain, that the ringleaders are actually British citizens, etc. All they need is a sound bite of the POTUS saying “the US is supporting the protesters” that they can take out of context to further undermine the protesters.
It’s a rhetorical game, and there’s nothing to be gained from coming out with rhetorical guns blazing in favor of the protesters. If there’s one thing the US can take from it’s past involvement in Iranian politics is that the fastest way to kill this movement would be to stick a little American flag pin on it.
I don’t know, do you have a course of action in mind for the US government to take that would help the protesters in their cause? Do you
As an aside, we really know hardly anything about the election in terms of rigging or fraud. Sure there are some sketchy things, but there was something sketchy about all those votes for Pat Buchanan in Palm Beach county, too!*
It’s not to say that I would be surprised to find out that the Iranian election was fixed but -reality check- our best source of information on this is something called “twitter.” …didn’t the last in-over-his-head commander-in-chief teach you anything about basing US middle east policy on weak intel and gut feelings??
HE, $1 says the irony of referring to 338-electoral-votes Obama as “the usurper” in this context totally lost on you! hahaha
* whether the election was rigged or not, at the end of the day what really matters in terms of the regime’s stability is whether it’s able to appear legit in the eyes of the people. That’s something that the powers-that-be in the US pulled off pretty well in 2000, but the Iranian regime is failing at right now. However, if they succeed in shifting the focus from voting irregularities to “the meddling West” they can leverage the tried-and-true “us vs. them” rhetoric to both regain some legitimacy and circumvent the issues that people are angry about. None of that is in our national interest.
Hmm, Stay Puft. I wouldn’t necessarily lay a bet on seeing circumvention in a case like this. Depends on how deep those feelings of domestic political distrust and hatred have become. There does come a time when everything the leadership says in these situations is recognized truly as bullshit. Sometimes you just cannot get the toothpaste back in the tube with resorting to the use of utmost force against dissenters. It will be interesting to watch. Hopefully, the U.S. may find a viable opening somewhere along the line to gain some good out of all this.
That should read “without resorting to the use of utmost force”
“338-electoral-votes”
They also assumed that he had been vetted, HaHa.
The states say that it is the responsibility of the feds to vet and the feds say that it is the responsibility of the states to vet before they allow someone on the ballot….so….end result….no one vetted him.
Pelosi, Reid, etc. were served with a lawsuit regarding their negligence in allowing someone who was not eligible to run. They filed for a 60 day continuance which expired the beginning of May and once again filed illegally for an additional 60 day continuance. I guess they can’t find the proof that he is eligible to submit.
There is currently legislation pending which would require congress to fully vet before someone is allowed on any ballot.
Roger Calero was allowed on ballots twice as a presidential candidate, he was born in Nicaragua, he and his parents later came to the US, he is still a citizen of Nicaragua and has a green card.
Actually, McCain should not have been allowed on the ballots, while his father was serving at a military facility in Panama, he was not born on a military base, but a civilian hospital off base.
Bobby Jindal is not eligible to run, his father came here on a student visa from India to study and his mother was 4.5 months pregnant with him when they arrived, he is basically another anchor baby that got his prize birth certificate.
If the Usurper is proven a fraud, there was no president running the country, everything he signs and implements is void and a new election would have to take place.
It is hard to believe that people are willing to allow a Usurper, Interloper, Fraud, etc. sit in the white house not knowing his motives or background.
It is tragic, that no one cares if the constitution is upheld and our laws enforced anymore, Arnold may as well run in 2012.
SPMM,
‘All they need is a sound bite of the POTUS saying “the US is supporting the protesters” that they can take out of context to further undermine the protesters.’
And I am the simp? The Mullahs, as I mentioned above, blame us for earthquakes. Simp? They blamed us w/o Obama saying anything worth a damn. The key element here is what I call ‘the giggle factor.’ Ever spend time in the borders of a dictatorship? You learn quickly that the media is utterly untrustworthy, and, you learn how to read between the lines.
The election was by paper ballot and they called it for Imaheadjob in a few hours? The economy there is dying, they had ~10% unemployment when Imaheadjob took over, they are pushing 20% now. There are a lot of economic elements in play here. The nuke program is using up resources that could be put to far better use.
Furthermore, keep in mind that though the traditional press – radio, newspapers, TV – are under state control the age of the internet has put large cracks in the information wall that a dictatorship likes to keep about its subjects. Do you really think the populous actually believes the Mullah controlled news?
Both candidates where picked by the Mullahs. The riots are about what little voice the people have being taken away. The country as a whole is sick of Imaheadjob. This if anything shows how afraid the Mullahs are of the prevailing wind in Iran, thirty years of harsh Islamic rule has bred a generation singularly disinterested in the teachings of the Koran.
The ace in the hole for the Mullahs are their zeolots (the militias etc). Do you think those brown shirts are even going to read a paper and make a decision? Do you. LOL!!! That sir is beyond simple. It’s almost as ridiculous as calling Obama a conservative.
“These women practically undressed and then dressed in front of me.”
Wolv, Being the perfect gentleman, of course you looked away ?
Are you kidding?!!! I didn’t miss a minute of it. Many Iranian women are real lookers. Of course I was a lot younger then….
Wolv, “Sometimes you just cannot get the toothpaste back in the tube with resorting to the use of utmost force against dissenters.” That seems like what we’re seeing now. I’m just saying that its a delicate situation and it doesn’t seem like there’s a whole lot to be gained from spouting rhetoric that’s going to play into party line that this whole movement is a foreign conspiracy. gotta let them reach for the brass ring, as it where…
Jacob,
I understand that they like to blame us for everything. Again, what’s to be gained from making statements that will only reinforce their BS? The time will come when those kinds of moves are necessary, but at present no one is calling for outright revolution.
Do I believe that the Iranians take the state-controlled media seriously? I don’t know, do Americans take Fox news seriously?
Sure the regime has it’s die-hards who don’t care what’s being said, but change comes from the margins. If Obama says something that strengthens their position that this movement is being led by outside forces, it’s going to mean fewer people on the streets; it’s going to cause some people to say, “I don’t know what’s going on anymore, plus it’s getting rough out there, so maybe I’ll stay home tomorrow” and that’s the kind of stuff that can kill a movement like this…
Wolv,
“These women practically undressed and then dressed in front of me.”
Reminds me of the GAP store at the Leesburg Outlet Mall, during a big holiday sale.. Think some reserve their Victoria’s Secret undergarments just for this shopping trip..
Dans, maybe also like Filene’s of Boston on a bra sale day. Or so I have been told. Never been in Filene’s myself, of course. Heck, I won’t even set foot in Massachusetts anymore. Not even for that!
Stay Puft, it would appear that you and I are pretty much on a similar page with regard to all this Iranian business — at least for the moment. However, this type of thing is capable of changing on an almost daily basis, requiring we in the U.S. to stay on our toes and to plot in advance a number of possible moves to meet the evolving situation. My own past experience tells me there is an acute and ongoing focus on this in every agency concerned with foreign affairs and intelligence.
I’ve got to say that Iran is one of the tougher and more perplexing problems I’ve seen personally; and I was right there for the Tehran embassy hostage situation and the hostage situation in Lebanon. In fact, by my own calculations, I turned out to be one of first persons and maybe even the first person in this city who became aware that our embassy was being overrun. What a night that was!! Everyone should have the experience of waking up the VIP’s in this city and trying to get them to comprehend something as extraordinary as that when all you have for the moment are a couple of barebones emergency messages! I have seen since Iran become like a piece of gum on the sole of our national tennis shoe. Doesn’t make much difference who is president. Very tough deal to handle for anybody.