Crossposted from Flopping Aces

Wow….now this is some decisive leadership eh? (h/t Weasel Zippers)

The Obama administration might reevaluate its stance toward Iran if the violent crackdowns on dissidents were to escalate, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said Tuesday.

“Well, obviously, we are watching the events each and every day here at the White House,” Gibbs said during his appearance on Fox News.

The White House spokesman said that if an escalation were to take place along the lines of China’s Tiananmen Square Massacre — an event to which Republicans critical of President Obama have compared the Iranian protests — then the administration would take another look at their stance.

“Obviously, if a tremendous escalation happened — if tanks happened — obviously, we would evaluate that immediately,” Gibbs said.

During Poland Ronald Reagan went on nationally televised and gave a speech that ended with this:

“I want to emphatically state tonight that if the outrages in Poland do not cease we cannot, and will not, conduct business as usual with the perpetrators and those who aid and abet them”
- Ronald Reagan

What do we get from Obama? Outings with his family and a bunch of hemming and hawing. “Well if it REALLY REALLY escalates then we will do something.”

The Iranian youth have risen up, as we had hoped they would do for decades now, and our President waffled. His backers made the excuse up that if he was to get involved it would cause more mayhem. But mayhem happened anyway….as Mataharley noted in her most excellent comment here:

As time has revealed, and as I predicted (or as you put it, in my “defense”), all of the above comes to fruition *without* Obama demonstrating any balls in leadership. Therefore your crystal ball is filled with sewage, and your quick agreement to ignore our values and remain diplomatically neutral has been proven to be an exercise in naivety.The “tragic” happens despite his tiptoeing around a stand for our values of freedoms. But compounding the “tragic” is Iranians in the streets, putting their lives on the line, waiting and “hoping” day after day for a measure of support - only to find the American President is a diplomatic eunuch, and refuses to pick a side that is reflective of the values of this nation. Frankly, the Iranians are demonstrating more American values than our POTUS.

I miss George Bush, dang it all. That man didn’t sit on the fence when it came to freedom and basic human rights in these nations.

The Bush admin had Democracy Program Initiative, as we discussed above. This was to nurture exactly what is happening now… a nation that speaks up for regime change. (Altho those like Larry W seem to think this magically appeared because of Obama in Cairo… sigh…)

You seemed to assume Obama would continue that program.

Courtesy of Missy, tho we see no formal accounts in other media, Obama has abandoned that as well.

Suzanne Maloney, a Brookings mouthpiece, has been against this program, saying the Iranians need to fight it out themselves. How interesting… we rescue other nation’s citizens when they are being oppressed (Kosovo, Bosnia, Serbia, Korea, Vietnam, WWI and II etal), but helping Iranians is out of the question? What are these people to do against Ahmadinejad’s military might and the Ayatollah’s oppressive power? You think Iran’s leadership will cave to the protestors without the help of the free world?

The supporters of the Iranian initiative blame people like Maloney for “blunting the intent” of the program. As is usual, the special interest lobby types manage to control foreign policy somehow.

What to do? Again, I ask you… we can come to the rescue of the Slavic nations and that’s okay, but we can’t come to the rescue of the Iranians? Why is that, triz. Because you see defeat before we begin? From your statements INRE Russia, that’s obviously your armchair general’s opinion. If that’s anything like your sewage-filled crystal ball gazing, forgive me if I discard your strategic observations as nothing more than pacifist mutterings.

Well fear not. *This* POTUS won’t lift a finger to help anyone else escape oppression. He won’t even give them verbal support and a well warranted “atta boy”. That probably falls in line with an impotent and corrupt UN… who will also do nothing but issue white washed lip service and token “tut tut’s”.

Obama, that selfish and stupid bastard, will do nothing but focus the American military on his campaign promise of bringing Osama bin Laden “to justice” (i.e. relocation to Bermuda or some other island?). All well and good but, in reality, that won’t do whit in the world of the “overseas contingency operations”. But won’t the big Zero strut about like a peacock, proclaiming his big success?

In the meantime, an opportunity for Iran to make major advances in becoming a Muslim democracy, because their own people are demanding a “change”, will fall by the wayside by a cowardly and naive POTUS who is “touched” by their efforts, afraid to take a side. Why? Because he thinks if we stand passively aside, Iran’s regime will be easier to negotiate with.

Right… and I’m winning the lottery tomorrow.

Frankly, I’m glad work has swamped me of late, limiting my post contributions and comments. I never thought I’d say it, but I am utterly ashamed to be an American under a President Obama. I don’t recognize my own country anymore. The values I treasure, and those of my parents and generations before, are being tossed aside as expendable under this POTUS. Our dedication to those around the world that also seek freedom is too expensive and inconvenient for this President, as it may hurt his poll numbers and find himself as despised as Bush. Not good for this self-consumed stage politician.

Obama’s “remaking of America”, our values, culture of entrepreneurialship, and overt power grabs that everyone chooses to ignore as they gaze lovingly at the big Zero does not sit well with me. And I suspect other old farts that think like me, and don’t want to be a ward of Obama’s State, will be growing in numbers over the years. Guess all you O’faithful out there will just have to wait until we die off before you achieve your utopian dream of a Euro-social America with a stepford/complacent population

Uh…..what she said.

Can’t put it any better myself.

Also:

Obama Press Conference: He’s Waiting to See How Iran Crisis “Plays Out”

A leader leads. Obama is a follower!

From today’s press conference:

QUESTION: Thank you, Mr. President. Your administration has said that the offer to talk to Iran’s leaders remains open. Can you say if that’s still so even with all the violence that has been committed by the government against the peaceful protesters? And if it is, is there any red line that your administration won’t cross where that offer will be shut off?

OBAMA: Well, obviously what’s happened in Iran is profound, and we’re still waiting to see how it plays itself out. My position coming into this office has been that the United States has core national security interests in making sure that Iran doesn’t possess a nuclear weapon and it stops exporting terrorism outside of its borders.

We have provided a path whereby Iran can reach out to the international community, engage, and become a part of international norms. It is up to them to make a decision as to whether they choose that path. What we’ve been saying over the last several days, the last couple of weeks, obviously is not encouraging in terms of the path that this regime may choose to take. And the fact that they are now in the midst of an extraordinary debate taking place in Iran, you know, may end up coloring how they respond to the international community as a whole.

We are going to monitor and see how this plays itself out before we make any judgments about how we proceed. But to reiterate, there is a path available to Iran in which their sovereignty is respected, their traditions, their culture, their faith is respected, but one in which they are part of a larger community that has responsibilities and operates according to norms and international rules that are universal.

We don’t know how they’re going to respond yet, and that’s what we’re waiting to see.

QUESTION: So should there be consequences for what’s happened so far?

OBAMA: I think that the international community is, as I said before, bearing witness to what’s taking place. And the Iranian government should understand that how they handle the dissent within their own country, generated indigenously, internally, from the Iranian people, will help shape the tone, not only for Iran’s future, but also its relationship to other countries.

American leadership at critical moments has achieved great progress in human history. Unfortunately, the world now sees a President who does not share the vision of American exceptionalism which led to so many advances in world peace and prosperity in earlier years.

Meanwhile, Obama’s State Department has invited Iranian diplomats to 4th of July parties at our embassies worldwide for the first time in many years!

I hereby apologize to the world, and especially to the Iranian people for the weak and passive response by this President of the United States! You are on your own. Obama doesn’t care!

Finally:

Iranian Father Told He Must Pay for the Bullet That Killed His Son

Such is the evil of a regime Obama seems reluctant to denounce!

Son’s Death Has Iranian Family Asking Why
By FARNAZ FASSIHI
Wall Street Journal
JUNE 23, 2009

TEHRAN—The family, clad in black, stood at the curb of the road sobbing. A middle-aged mother slapped her cheeks, letting out piercing wails. The father, a frail man who worked as a doorman at a clinic in central Tehran, wept quietly with his head bowed.

Minutes before, an ambulance had arrived from Tehran’s morgue carrying the body of their only son, 19-year-old Kaveh Alipour.

On Saturday, amid the most violent clashes between security forces and protesters, Mr. Alipour was shot in the head as he stood at an intersection in downtown Tehran. He was returning from acting class and a week shy of becoming a groom, his family said.

The details of his death remain unclear. He had been alone. Neighbors and relatives think that he got trapped in the crossfire. He wasn’t politically active and hadn’t taken part in the turmoil that has rocked Iran for over a week, they said.

“He was a very polite, shy young man,” said Mohamad, a neighbor who has known him since childhood.

When Mr. Alipour didn’t return home that night, his parents began to worry. All day, they had heard gunshots ringing in the distance. His father, Yousef, first called his fiancée and friends. No one had heard from him.

At the crack of dawn, his father began searching at police stations, then hospitals and then the morgue.

Upon learning of his son’s death, the elder Mr. Alipour was told the family had to pay an equivalent of $3,000 as a “bullet fee”—a fee for the bullet used by security forces—before taking the body back, relatives said.

Mr. Alipour told officials that his entire possessions wouldn’t amount to $3,000, arguing they should waive the fee because he is a veteran of the Iran-Iraq war. According to relatives, morgue officials finally agreed, but demanded that the family do no funeral or burial in Tehran. Kaveh Alipour’s body was quietly transported to the city of Rasht, where there is family.

Everyone in the neighborhood knows the Alipour family. In addition to their slain son, they have two daughters. Shopkeepers and businesses pasted a photocopied picture of Mr. Alipour on their walls and windows. In the picture, the young man is shown wearing a dark suit with gray stripes. His black hair is combed neatly to a side and he has a half-smile.

“He was so full of life. He had so many dreams,” said Arsalan, a taxi driver who has known the family for 10 years. “What did he die for?”