Obama Wrong Again: Time to Support Pro-Democracy Forces in Iran


One of the ways Americans divide themselves up is according to which side they root for in foreign wars and insurrections. In the case of Iran, I think it would be wise for everyone who opposes the Democrats to line up on the side of the freedom fighters supporting Mir Hussein Moussavi. As far as I can tell, the conflict surrounding Moussavi is not going away. Apparently, more than 100 opposition members have been detained and Moussavi reportedly “remained at home Sunday with the police closely monitoring his movements.” Even worse, the Obama administration has decided to line up with Iran’s most senior cleric, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who called the election a great success and “has once again approved its result.”

Obama appears to be following the typical appeasement strategy which hopelessly believes that doing nothing wins us international support when, in truth, it signals a weakness that allows folks like Moussavi to get ground up by Iranian military and government elites.

I think the smarter option is for us to start wearing green, to use our modest Twitter and social networking tools to support the Iranian opposition, and to encourage those who would put greater military pressure on Iran. It is silly to think that revolutions occur when the public reaches an emotional boiling point. The reality is that revolutions only succeed when governments fail to repress them with military force. Accordingly, the more distractions we can provide for the Iranian military, the more we can expect to see public emotions turn into a beneficial change of regime. Also, I think it is unrealistic to think that axis of evil type governments change only through internal stress.

All in all, I think this is an important time to send a strong message to the protestors in Iran that we support their efforts and will do whatever we can to help them achieve their freedom. We can encourage them by pointing out that they are on the side of justice and winning history. Iran will be a silly, weak, and backward place as long as it abuses gays, women and children with an outmoded religious/political ideology. The starting point for the U.S. is that Obama should stand up and support a second election with international monitors. As a political scientist, I know the polls cannot be that far off – even in Iran.

Augustine 25 is the pseudonym for an award-winning political scientist.

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2 Responses

  1. Obama is wrong on just about everything.
    He believes America has an evil rerehensible past as far as dealing with foriegn countries so whatever the “normal” response would be Obama will buck it.

    Obama wants to act like his Cairo speech instigated these riots. But the truth is that there have been these rumblings in Iran for many years. Reasonable, educated Iranians do NOT like the way the Mullah’s have destroyed their economy and credibility around the world with the maniacal ravings of Achmedinejad. This unrest was only bound to spill over at some point.

    Obama’s Cairo speech was nothing but an apology for Islam wrapped as always in self-important rhetoric.

    Obama is an Islamic sympathizer plain and simple. If Not even worse than that, maybe a promoter of all things Islam.

    Obama’s strategy is worse than appeasement. Forget about winning support with the rest of the world. Obama wants to do everything in his power to validate Islamic regimes because he has a serious chip on his shoulder for anything American. Obama wants to make the world more exceptable to Islam.

  2. So Obama blew it with the Israeli leader by resetting American policy (downward) in support of Israeli at the very worst time imaginable. Then he reaches out to the Iranian leader who obviously could care less what Obama does as long as he doesn’t get in his way. Now that the Iranian election is an obvious joke, Obama won’t reach out to the Iranian people who were wronged in the voting. But then again Obama is used to (Acorn) fixing elections.

    Ahmadinejad has roughly 600 medium to long range conventional missiles aimed at Israeli and Netanyahu must take out the nuclear facilities in Iran without US assistance. Not to mention North Korea – What an international policy mess… .. I guess talking and singing kumbaya doesn’t work after all ?

    1.) Israeli will attack before the end of the year – they have no choice.
    2.) Iran will respond with missiles (these are generations better than Scuds).
    3.) The Middle East will be so unstable that oil prices will go through the roof.
    4.) What were American Jewish voters thinking when they voted in mass for Obama ?

    Mk

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