Shame On You, Mr. President

The full version of my reply to the author of this piece is here but I do think that she/he has international diplomacy inherently wrong.

Obama cannot, and should not, get involved more than he has done thusfar - to do so would lead to many more Iranians being killed.

Meddling in the past 30 years:

The Reagan administration's involvement in the so called Iran-Contra Affair, with the administration doing an end-around the U.S. Congress, involving, among others, the National Security Council and the CIA.

A very good point, Blue Crush, as the United States has at least a 50+ year old history of meddling, beginning with orchestrating the overthrow of the government of Muhammad Mossadeq in Iran in 1953 and installing the Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi.

Feeling tone cannot be objectively assessed, but Obama's feeling tone, going out for ice cream during this weekend, seems to lack something.

Obama has done little to nothing about North Korea as well. All this little to nothing may reflect the collapse of the validity of his paradigm in which the world's evil is primarily a reflection of our role in that evil, being replaced by what we see: evil men running Iran and an emerging democratic movement that wants transparency and accountability and will not call off the fight..

As far as how we are perceived, over a million Iranians live in the Los Angeles area, millions more around the US, and the Persian community has always been at the forefront of knowledge, historically. Their extensive continuing relationship with their Iranian extended families and with Iran as a nation insures that there is a real appreciation of both sides of what the US is about in Iran.

Only the uneducated and impoverished of Iran continue to believe in the Mullahcracy's demagogic take on the role of the US in the world.

I can't believe that a stronger tone of support, such as the statements that both houses of Congress passed, would not have been more appropriate.

We can all have different opinions on this, but the tone of certainty has no justification. This is a situation in which no predictive power can assert itself as "the way".

The protest began over an election, but has now taken on a life of its own, and it is being fueled by the failure of thitry years of the mullahs' policies, their anti-life policies making Iran a poorer place with less and less of a future.

The young are educated and strong.

Support for continuing revolt is coming from unexpected quarters, such as the just arrested daughter of Rafsanjani, recent past president of Iran, along with four members of her family.

This rebellion is now about ultimate control of Iran, not an election. The protesters are now rebels and they have crossed their Rubicon.

The above is an excerpt from the German Newspaper Augsburger Allgemeine.  The para reads as follows:

Federal Chancellor Merkel demanded, on Sunday, a recount of the votes for the Presidential Election. Germany is on the side of the people of Iran who wish to exercise their Right to Free Speech and the Right to Assembly.  Obama asked Teheran to stop all violence against the people of their own country.

NancyVideo, I don't know much about world news, so perhaps that is why I don't know what you expect President Obama to do about a dispute in Iran.  Are you asserting that the U.S. is somehow responsible for the election dispute, and if not, how is it America's affair?  In what way do you hold this to be a shame on President Obama?  I don't know if you noticed, but some folks are always fighting.  It has been ongoing for thousands of years now.  It is sad to know people are always battling it out and killing their own or jumping on a neighboring country, but after a while . . .

I don't appreciate your jab at President Obama for his father's abandonment, if that is what happened.  I think there are many thousands of men who can offer good advice on fatherhood because they rose above their own fatherless upbringing and became great dads themselves.  I was trying to follow what you wrote about Iran until I got to that unnecessary criticism.

I have some concern with the mainstream media as well.  Yesterday a suicide truck killed at least 46 and wounded about 120 people in Kirkuk, Iraq.  This hardly made news in the US or Canada.  For more on this story read here

In the last thirty years the Mullahs have been in charge, Karen!  How much MEDDLING has gone on?  The last 30 years we have been "meddling" to interfere with the Mullahs spreading their evil regime in the World.

Obama has ready taken the position that democracy and human rights are universal values. Iran is a signatory of the UN Charter and has made a formal binding commitment to those values. Asking the Iranian government to live up to it's word is not meddling and will not be  seen as meddling by the rebels at this point.  An overly cautious approach reflects a mind and heart overburdened by guilt from past transgression.

 IT WOULD BE A TRANSGRESSION TODAY NOT TO DEMAND THAT THE IRANIAN GOVERNMENT LIVE UPT TO ITS COMMITMENT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

What has Obama done about North Korea?  Has anything changed?  They do not care what we think!!  There is no redeeming feature there.  Wasn't it our meddling that allowed the South Koreans to create a country of greater prosperity and freedom than the North?

Mr. Cynic , involvement has many degrees and Mr. Obama has to demonstrate that he  really cares.  So  far he has only indicated a perfunctory interest in the outcome refusing to even  go before the..camera  to give it a human dimension. 

That was not "meddling" in Iran.

The Reagan administration sold spare parts to the mullahs for their American fighter planes. Reagan then took the money, illegally, and supported the "Contras", led by, among others, the ex-Sandanista fighter, Commander Zero, who, in a move reminiscent of what happened in Cuba, changed sides when he saw the tyranny of the Sandanistas.

Whether the sale was legal or illegal, I don't know, but selling them the parts got the Khomenei government to release the American hostages, held blindfolded for long periods, by the way, in violation of the Geneva Convention. Since it was a form of torture, maybe Holder can investigate the mullahs for that and send out an international arrest warrant so we can try them here in the US. Yeah!

That was hardly "meddling". The actions of Reagan in Nicaragua were "meddling" but have nothing to do with Iran.

Thanks for this, nancyvideo. You might want to read Choksy on Iran for another perspective.