>>”Case in point: The Iranian Student Uprising early in Obama’s first term. What did Obama do? Turned his eyes away and let Iran do what it wanted killing hundreds/thousands.”<<
The so-called ‘uprising’ in 2009 in Iran (which I incidentally supported at the beginning) was not essentially home-grown. Although, it did also involve various (non-Islamic) Iranian political groups.
ESSENTIALLY, the “Green Revolution” (2009) was a (violent) dispute between supporters of Ahmadi-Nejad and the reformist faction of the same Islamic Republic Regime - the former supported by ‘foreign elements’, and partly financed by self-serving, wealthy, and very corrupt individuals such as mullah Rafsanjani.
One can argue that Obama could’ve supported the ‘moderate/reformists Islamists” of the same Mullahs’ regime; OR put his weight behind those non-Islamic, secular groups.
All in all, it would not have worked because the Mullahs’ Regime is FIRMLY in charge in Iran, will kill as many UNARMED people (as they are and were), and is very much UNlike the Shah’s era.
>>”What was Obama’s response to the “arab spring?” He completely mis-characterized it and repeatedly failed to see it for what it truly was.”<<
Way I understood it, it was about Democracy and equal rights between shi’ites and sunnis in Arab countries. Another failure and ill-conceived plan. This ‘uprising’ was also instigated by outsiders.
Both the “Arab Spring” and the 2009 Green Revolution in Iran remind me of what Jimmy Carter did in Iran back in 1978-79.
Major difference, for Iran at least, being that times have changed.
Iranian Mullahs’ regime will quash any internal uprising in the most brutal way and with impunity, whereas the Shah chose to leave Iran in 1979 to avoid further bloodshed. And to stop Islamists & Communists (supported by Jimmy Carter et al, under the banner of “Democracy”) from terrorism inside Iran.
In hindsight the Shah should’ve stayed and killed the mentioned bast*rds; then again, the Shah would have been accused of being an Assad or a Saddam.....
Correction: “the former supported by ‘foreign elements’” = I meant the latter i.e. the Reformist faction.