Following the Iranian Presidential Election tens of thousands of angry protesters filled the streets of Tehran and other cities. Iran witnessed the largest street protests and rioting since the 1979 Iranian Revolution. Supporters of reform candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi, were upset and provoked to random acts of violence after the state news agencys announced the victory of the conservative candidate Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, suspicions of voter fraud prompted people to take to the streets both peacefully and, in some cases, violently to vent their frustrations. Iranian security forces and hardline volunteer militia members responded to the protest with force and arrests, in a blatant attempt to stamp out political opposition to the theocratic regime. Mousavi himself had encouraged supporters to engage in peaceful demonstrations by calling for calm at a large demonstration which was held in defiance of an official ban, while Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei called for an official inquiry into accusations of election irregularities.
To the eyes of the world, the Iranian protesters brought back memories of the student led protest of the Hungarian Marxist-Leninist regime in Budapest during 1956 which was violently put down by Soviet forces, as well as Tianamen square incident in 1989. Following several days of peaceful protest, ruling Muslim clerics escalated their campaign against the opposition and briefly arrested the family of former president Hashemi Rafsanjani, suspected of being aligned against the establishment. In the United States, President Barack Obama faced rising criticism for being too mild in comments on the continuing protests in Iran. Obama's stance, gave no moral support to the protesters struggle for reform in the totalitarian theocratic Iranian regime. Obama was criticized by critics for selling out the protestors when he had a historic opportunity to support their cause and call for a popular uprising against the clerics who have been ruling Iran since the 1979 Iranian Revolution.
Israel's President Shimon Peres according to Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu called on Iranians "to raise their voice of freedom" and expressed hope that the current "poor government will disappear." Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has repeatedly called for the annihilation of Israel. He was declared the victor in presidential elections a week and a half ago, touching off countrywide demonstrations that have been met with violent government reprisals.
American Republicans and some Democrats have chastised President Obama for not giving enough support to the protestors, who claim that the election results were rigged against challenger Mir Hossein Moussavi.
A Washington Post editorial explained that President Obama's stance against "meddling" in Iranians affairs prevents Muslim rulers from being able to charge that the demonstrations are pro-American. However, The New York Times editorialized that the president "worries about coming out on the wrong side of history." Regardless of how the president's actions are rationalized they constitute act of cowardise and an unwilligness to take advantage of a historic opportunity. Such actions make commentors like myself ponder the question, is President Barack Obama fit to lead, and more imporantly fit to be commander and chief of the world's sole surviving super power?
NOTE- Iranian protesters burn pictures of President Barack Obama because of his unwillingness to aid in their struggle against the theocratic regime of Iran.
In Iran, Muslim clerics quickly released the family of former president Rafsanjani after arresting them, but their detention was seen as a warning that it will not tolerate opposition from Muslim clerics. Violence in the streets has subsided following the killing of several demonstrators. I can't help but fill that the president's intentional inaction was culpable in the deaths of men and women who were struggling against the oppression of tyranny and despotism. How could he sit in the Oval Office and know that he had the ability to help these individuals achieve freedom and liberty?
recommend this
email
print
link to this page
Comments: 4
I want to hear what you proposed he do without inciting another war.
Spencer, starting another war would have been foolish, I would never under any circumstance have advocated that we goto war with Iran. I would, however, attempted to motivate the president to act like the leader of free world, and at the least deliver a speach which would tell the Iranian people that "America supports you in your struggle for freedom and liberty and lends you moral support in your actions against the theocratic regime." Obama didn't have to give a "Mr. Gorbachev tear down this wall" speach but something supporting the protesters would have been better than taking no action at all in retrospect.
I believe that the president had a historic opportunity that he failed to exploit. I don't know if it was his own decision or the advice of some advisor in the State Department but the president did not take advantage of the turmoil. Instead of protest we might have witnessed a popular revolution against the Islamic Mullahs. Many Iranians contrary to popular belief like the United States, especially the younger section of the populace that has been influenced by American music and fashion, Moussavi may not have created a regime that was completely pro-Western but it would have been a nice way to thaw relations between the United States and Iran, and a historic opportunity to bring this nation back into the fold of law abiding states of the international community. I think we dropped the ball Spencer.
Josh,
I don
t know if you are old enough to remember the Hungarian Revolution, but I am. Having seen the aftermath of that, I am very hesitant about encouraging a people who face a well armed adversay to engage in a relbellion to which we can give no more than moral support.
Obama will have this bite his butt soon enough. This Iranian president is an animal. You just can't suck butt of an animal and not get something brown back.