re: #99 iceweasel

Anything bellicose, anything threatening, anything that announces the US will intervene to put in place the ruler THEY want to see in Iran, regardless of what the Iranian people want.

It’s a very fine line to walk. The regime *wants* to claim that there is no legitimate opposition, and that the protesters are all puppets of (or swayed by) outside forces. The regime wants to portray the protest and the opposition as something started by outsiders who seek to destabilise and undermine Iran.

It’s not a very fine line at all. There’s a clearly tenable stronger position that Obama can take in support of democracy and the democratic process, not against the regime or in support of any particular candidate. He can stand against the violent crackdown as being against all the Citizens of the World.

Worrying about how the regime may play it is a distraction. They have no credibility and will spin anything into a negative. If we do nothing, they will make it up, as recent history has shown us. Why so much worry about what Achmadinejad says? He says crazy shit all the time. The problem is we don’t listen to him when we should. Instead, we are worrying about what he might say if we do something. We know what he’s going to say! It doesn’t matter if we do anything or not.

Instead of worrying about what the regime might say so much and trying not to be too do the wrong thing, maybe Obama should do the right thing and turn up the heat with an ABC primetime one hour special. He has said some strong statements about Iran, which is good, but he has not really taken a strong position other than saying ‘that’s not cool.’

It’s not statesmanship or leadership. Considering that this country will have a nuclear weapon in the near future, this was a very good opportunity started by a bunch of Iranian protesters, some of whom have been murdered.