Don’t Let a Crisis (in Iran) Go to Waste Part 2

The popular uprising in the streets of Tehran continues.

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The Facts:

• Iran has been developing nuclear weapons for a decade.  The Bush administration and a coalition of European governments failed for eight years to reach a so-called “diplomatic solution” that would persuade the Iranians to abandon their nuclear weapons program.
• Barack Obama and the Democrats claimed Iran could be persuaded if only someone other than George W. Bush were leading the diplomatic effort.   But European leaders tried for years, with and without Bush, with and without other American officials, to persuade the Iranians without sliver of success.
• The government of Iran is a theocratic dictatorship.  The supreme ruler, Ayatollah Ali Khameneii, does not submit to the election process. He was chosen by a “council” of Mullas.
• President Obama arrogantly believes that his good intentions and the power of his personality can do what nobody else could, persuade the Mullahs to abandon their nuclear ambitions
• Last week’s Iranian election was for President, an office with limited authority, that is answerable to Ayatollah Khameni.  So the election was largely a sham.  Even so, brave candidates who oppose theocratic rule ran for President and one of them appeared in pre-election polls to be ahead by a substantial majority.  Indeed the government even told him he had won, before reversing itself and announcing that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the lunatic incumbent had won another term.
• It seems to be beyond any reasonable doubt that the vote count was rigged.
  
• There have been four straight days of enormous protest demonstrations in the streets of Tehran, the capital.  Government troops and police have begun employing violent measures to try to disperse the demonstrators.  Foreign journalists are being expelled from the country. AP reports eight people have been shot to death by a government sponsored militia.
  

As the world watches, Iran could be on the cusp of a revolution that ends up deposing the theocratic dictatorship.  This is an opportunity for the President of the United States, to express principled support the Iranian people in their struggle against tyranny.   What has  President Obama said so far?  Here are some samples of his tepid remarks:

It is up to Iranians to make decisions as to who Iran’s leaders will be.  ffffffffffffffffffff

Which Iranians?  The  Mullahs or the Iranian People?  How can the people choose leaders when the elections are irrelevant?  Why can’t the American President speak clearly and unambiguously for liberty?

I am deeply troubled by the violence I have seen on television.  The democratic process, free speech, the ability of people to peacefully dissent, those are universal values and need to be respected.

This reveals Obama’s bureaucratic affinity for process over the principles that motivate people to risk their lives and safety in rebellion against illegitimate despots.  The universal values at stake are liberty, and sovereignty of the individual, and limited government charged with protecting rather than curtailing natural rights.  Democratic processes that permit dissent and free speech are necessary for the maintenance of liberty.

There appears to be a sense on the part of people who were so hopeful and so engaged and so committed to democracy who now feel betrayed…

This election was not worthy of anyone being hopefully engaged and committed to democracy.  Regardless of the outcome, the same Mullahs would still have been supreme rulers, calling the shots.  It should be obvious, even to Obama, that the people of Iran are fed up with incompetent, theocratic rule.  It should be obvious that the election was merely the spark that ignited an explosion of seething anger that has been smoldering just below the surface for a long time.  This is the moment for America to stand in support of people who are taking enormous personal risk to fight for freedom.

One more quote from President Obama

It’s not productive given the history of US Iranian relations for the US president to be seen as meddling in Iranian elections.

Again, Obama speaks reverently of the Iranian election as if it were a legitimate process, not to be influenced by outsiders.  In reality it was close to meaningless.  The hundreds of thousands of people who have taken to the streets of Teheren are motivated by complaints that are more fundamental than a sham election whose outcome mattered little to the reality of oppression by an unaccountable, theocratic regime.

It appears that the American President is more committed to his plan to “engage” the ruthless Iranian rulers, through “diplomacy”  than to the hopes and aspirations of oppressed people, who may complicate his plan with a messy, popular revolt against those rulers.