21 June, United States:
I cannot have respect for a man who has no problem with a daughter dying in her father's arms in the streets of Tehran because they want their votes to have actual meaning.
Make no mistake, I want Malia and Sasha to remain ignorant of the bloodiness that is this fight. There is no place in it for small children. Neda was a grown woman. She made a choice to take to the streets and risk her life to protest injustice and to demand a sort of democracy.
But here we have the leader of the free world, the DEMOCRATICALLY CHOSEN President of the country that has its whole existence stood for freedom, for individual liberty, for personal choice, and for the willingness to die for these things...And he will not even raise his voice.
I'm not asking us to send troops to Iran. I don't think it would accomplish anything. I just want him to open his mouth and say something of worth.
Like:
"The extent of the fraud is proportional to the violent reaction...It is a tragedy, but it is not negative to have a real opinion movement that tries to break its chains."
or"It is for Iran now to show the world that the elections have been fair . . . that the repression and the brutality that we have seen in these last few days is not something that is going to be repeated."
or
"Human rights and citizens' rights are inseparable... I, therefore, demand that Iran's leaders allow peaceful demonstrations, allow free reporting of events, stop the use of violence against demonstrators and free imprisoned people."
But I guess we have to rely on Sarkozy, Brown, and Merkel to do that for us. Obama's mouth seems to be full.
2 comments:
You just don't get politics, do you? Anything the president says that would imply in any way that we were "on their side" would make it WORSE for them and would serve only to help invalidate their position. They would be dismissed as supporters of and by America. Since it cannot be in any way proven that there was fraud the best and only logical course is to say nothing. Try looking at the bigger picture for once.
See, that's a real pretty theory, but it doesn't mesh with reality. For starters, we (along with Israel) were blamed for the protests from the very start. State-run media immediately claimed that the protests/rioting were incited by a terrorist organization with ties to the US and Great Britain.
Moreover, when Obama finally did issue a more strongly-worded statement, things did not immediately get worse for them. Which doesn't invalidate them, but does invalidate your argument.
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