Thanks Wikicommons.
So what should the US do about the elections in Iran (other than the US Democrazy solution of flooding the blogosphere with posts)?
Vice President Joe Biden said “there’s some real doubt” about the legitimacy of the election. So far that admonishment is the harshest statement from the White House (and unsurprisingly it came from Joe “foot in the mouth” Biden).
Currently the administration is not closing any doors, with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton avoiding any condemnation of the Iranian elections.
The current White House response is finding support from some groups.
The White House can and should “show concern for human life and protesters’ safety and promote tolerance and dialogue.” But to get any further involved, even rhetorically, would “instigate the cry that the reformers are somehow driven and directed by the United States
said Hadi Ghaemi, a spokesman, strongly apposed to Ahmadinejad, for the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran.
Others however have called for a stronger response from President Obama.
Let’s assume that Obama meant what he said when he called for a “new beginning” for the region and relations with the United States.
Isn’t now the time to consolidate and build on those gains by using that popularity to destabilize Ahmadinejad and the hardliners in Iran? He does not need to call openly for an uprising, but he should be taking the accounts of reporters and our intelligence operatives in Iran and broadcasting them to the world. He should be amplifying the voices of the Iranians who have, once again, been deprived of any say in how they will be governed, and using them to pressure the Iranian regime at a time when it is plainly very fragile.
So how should the US respond? I know all of our faithful readers have been bored over the weekend. So get juiced up for this week’s US Democrazy posts by stating your views on the Iranian Elections.
