Thursday, June 18, 2009

Twitter the Revolution

President Obama claims it would be 'meddling' to issue a strong statement of support for the people of Iran as they rally in the streets this week in protest of the bogus election results released by the country's theocratic leadership. The Iranian people hope otherwise that Americans will be secure enough in the difference between right and wrong, between good and evil, between freedom and tyranny, to stand with them.

The American people are. President Obama is not.

In The New York Times, a leak is written about from the camps of VP Biden and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, both asking the President for stronger support of the Iranian people. If the report is true, it marks the first true leak of a rift in the Executive branch.

This comes on the heels of a story that the social network Twitter was asked to postpone and re-schedule a maintenance service of the network as the Iranians continue to use Twitter, as best as they can, to get the latest information out to the world. This request is credited to the State Department. While Hillary Clinton went on the record that she doesn't use Twitter, apparently her Department of State does and that is good. While the government of Iran is shutting down social media networks as quickly as they can, Twitter seems to remain up and running for many there.

People around the globe are wearing green in support of the Iranian people. Those using Twitter are coloring avatars green. Politicians on both sides of the aisle are voicing support for the Iranian people, as are ordinary Americans and people around the world.

French President Sarkozy has voiced strong support for the people of Iran. He was first to come out and denounce the election results as fraud. He voiced support for expressions of freedom from the Iranians. Germany called on authorities to allow peaceful demonstrations, release of political prisoners and lifting media restrictions. Canada called for a fully transparent investigation into electoral discrepancies.

America's place in the world is as the leader of freedom in the world. Unfortunately, President Obama shows insecurity in this role. Unable to lead, he remained silent for a full two days. Then he released a weak statement that he didn't want the U.S. to look like meddlers. This is unfortunate. As the people of Iran cried out for international support, risking life and limb, the new President remain silent.

Proving again that appeasement doesn't work, the Iranian leadership accused America of interfering anyway.

A President of strong personal character and leadership ethics would have not hesitated. Senator John McCain was at the forefront in voicing support for the people protesting the election results. You may remember he also had to lead candidate Obama into supporting the people of Georgia as they fought off Russian thuggery during the presidential campaign. Obama was not up to the challenge then, either.

President Obama failed the first 3:00 AM call.

A cartoon from the Cleveland Dispatch: http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/stahler/index.html

1 comment:

srp said...

Hasn't Obama studied history at all.. he claims to be the reincarnation of FDR.... he tried the appeasement route too... the separation... let's keep out of it... Look where that got us... Pearl Harbor, Holocaust, bombing of London... right WWII. Of course the current Hitlers in North Korea and Iran have or will have soon, something Hitler could only dream of... nuclear weapons. OBAMA... NOT the time to be a wimp.