Posted on 06/20/2009 11:50:03 AM PDT by The Klingon
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary _______________________________________________________________ For Immediate Release June 20, 2009
Statement from the President on Iran
The Iranian government must understand that the world is watching. We mourn each and every innocent life that is lost. We call on the Iranian government to stop all violent and unjust actions against its own people. The universal rights to assembly and free speech must be respected, and the United States stands with all who seek to exercise those rights.
As I said in Cairo, suppressing ideas never succeeds in making them go away. The Iranian people will ultimately judge the actions of their own government. If the Iranian government seeks the respect of the international community, it must respect the dignity of its own people and govern through consent, not coercion.
Martin Luther King once said - "The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice." I believe that. The international community believes that. And right now, we are bearing witness to the Iranian peoples’ belief in that truth, and we will continue to bear witness.
In other words, he votes a resounding “Present!”
We had no plans for direct intervention in Berlin or Prague either, nor did we send signals to the citizens of East Germany or Czechoslovakia that we would directly intervene, but we gave moral support via our leadership’s statements and actions.....and that played a large part in the collapse of those oppressive regimes. Our government’s support was not “muted” in those cases. Why aren’t we doing that now?
He tried to make the language as “tough” as he could without changing his position one bit. It’s crap and he’s a coward. It reminds me of what our government did to the Kurds in 1991 after Desert Storm, we encouraged them to revolt against Saddam, we even assured them we would support their uprising. Meaningless words. We did nothing. Obama gives this lofty speech in Cairo about reaching out, but when push came to shove did he step up and voice strong support for those seeking freedom and democracy in Iran? No, he clammed up like a wimp. As I said, he’s a coward.
And how is Martin Luther King and the civil rights struggle at all relevant to the regime vs the people situation in Iran?
The one was a legal-joined issue that was essentially resolved peacefully within "the system".
The other is a violent struggle between the people and the governing regime that is unlikely to be resolved peacefully...or via any pre-existing system.
King's commitment to non-violence wouldn't cut any ice in Tehran.
Nonetheless, King had to be quoted...just as The One had to cite "As I said in Cairo..."
Because Obama doesn't want the mullahs to get pissed off at him!
To be sure, they're free to hate America. But The One must be seen as a friend.
Exactly. It's a pretty good statement -- for Obama. I wish he'd done it in person rather than in writing though. It would have been a more powerful pronouncement of support for the people if Iranians could see it on youtube.
Obama is in a bind since the alternative, Moussavi, may only be a tad better than Ahamdinejad and is no George Washington himself. We don't really want to support the opposition, but we do want to support free and fair elections as well as the people's fight for liberty and freedom.
Anyway, Obama can and should do more, but will he?
On twitter: Jila Bani Yaghoub, feminist and journalist, arrested at her home in Tehran a few minutes ago.
Take that Iran... and if you don’t stop, I’m going to make ANOTHER statement tomorrow, with some more Martin Luther King quotes.
I’m betting his next statement will quote Mohammad or the Koran.
Meanwhile, Obama takes his family for ice cream. True story folks.
Narcissistic!
I am not being sarcastic to your post - for some reason that word's spelling always escapes me! I can do Egotist, Egotism, Conceited, Pathological Liar.
What??
He’s so good at gobbeldegook, he talks with a forked tongue.
Except if you're a Republican.
Or the Israeli government.
Wait. Make that a Sporked tongue.
;o]
I agree with you — too little and way too late.
The negligence of the obama administration is sad. We have a chance to aid a revolution, one that might topple a terrorist nation, and we sit and do nothing. Let the Iranian people fight their own battle, with our help. Weapons, and supplies should be air dropped in. Iran’s ports sealed off, economy sealed off. We have the ability to do things to aid the freedom fighters efforts, and we sit and do nothing.
If you consider that statement strong, I sure would hate to see what you consider weak. Ocoward's statement was nothing but empty platitudes.
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