United Liberty

The protests in Iran echo struggles for democracy in decades past:

AT LEAST seven protesters were reported to be dead, and many others injured, after shots were fired, apparently by security forces, into a huge crowd of demonstrators in Tehran on Monday June 15th. Three days since officials announced the result of a presidential election in which the incumbent, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, was handed an implausible landslide victory, furious residents took to the streets and the rooftops of the capital city. Protesters shouted that the election result was fraudulent. Hundreds of thousands of people ignored government orders to disperse, putting on a display of anger and defiance not seen since the revolution of three decades ago.

This situation is as clear cut an act of the suffocation of democracy as Prague Spring, when Czech social democrats were brutally put down by the Soviets in 1968, or the suppression of Tiananmen Square protests by the Chinese in 1989.

Barack Obama’s restrained response to the Iran crisis shows the other side of Obama’s “reaching out” to the Middle East. While it is good to not alienate in the way the Bush administration did, it is tragically naive to forget what kind of people head most Middle Eastern governments.

Fortunately, it appears that there are some in the Obama administration who realize how critical it is to take a stand on Iranian authoritarianism:

It’s not just Republicans who are unhappy with President Obama’s muted response to what’s happening in Iran. There’s apparently an internal divide at the White House over how tough or not Obama should be. According to the New York Times this morning, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Vice President Joe Biden “would like to strike a stronger tone in support of protestors” while “other White House officials have counseled a more cautious approach.” Obama has clearly sided with the latter, saying he doesn’t want to be seen as “meddling” in the Iranian elections. What’s interesting to your Gaggler is this is only second or third time we’ve heard about internal discontent coming from this very buttoned down, very on message, very “all is great” White House. So who leaked this out?

Barack Obama came to power with many of his supporters saying that he was carrying on the mantle of John F. Kennedy. Kennedy, unlike Obama, however, was steadfast in proclaiming that America must be a beacon of liberty to the world, and should not be silent when people are being stomped on by their governments. It is not “meddling” to publically voice our disapproval of the Iranian regime’s actions. I personally find it embarrassing that we have a president who is willing to go to Cairo and apologize for the British/American coup of Mohammed Mosaddeq 56 years ago but is overly cautious about criticizing the Iranian government for staging fraudulent elections and then subsequently murdering political protestors right as it is happening.

I’m not calling for an invasion or military action against Iran. I am calling for President Obama to express condemnation of the Iran government’s brutal and unacceptable behavior.