How should the United States deal with protests in Iran?
With protests worsening in Iran over the weekend, many are wondering if the United States should step in already and help.
President Obama has only made comments about protests instead of taking any action. According to the BBC, he said:
I am deeply troubled by the violence that I’ve been seeing on television. I think that the democratic process, free speech, the ability for folks to peacefully dissent, all those are universal values and need to be respected.
Obama has also explained why he does not want to take action in an interview with CBS’ The Early Show last week according to an Associated Press article:
The last thing that I want to do is to have the United States be a foil for those forces inside Iran who would love nothing better than to make this an argument about the United States. We shouldn’t be playing into that.
But those statements were made before police began attacking protesters with tear gas and shooting live bullets in the air over the weekend. The death toll also rose sharply. A total of 13 protesters were killed on Saturday according to Iranian State Media reports on Sunday bringing the death toll to 20 since the protests began, according to a Times Online article.
There’s even been a video posted on YouTube of a woman getting shot during the protests.
Despite the growing violence, Iranian leadership doesn’t want any help.
According to Fox News, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad warned the United States and Britain yesterday to stop meddling in Iran’s internal affairs. He said:
Definitely by hasty remarks you will not be placed in the circle of friendship with the Iranian nation. Therefore I advise you to correct your interfering stances
They (Western countries) want to portray as small the great and powerful position that has been created for the Iranian nation inside and outside after the recent election, by which of course they made a mistake and they showed they still do not know the Iranian nation.Definitely recent events will add to the Islamic Republic of Iran’s greatness and might.
Should the United States disregard the comments made by Iranian leadership and interfere anyway for the sake of protestors? How much worse do the protests need to get for the United States to have a duty to interfere? What could be a consequence of interfering? And if we should interfere, how should we do it?
The United States SHOULDN’T deal with protests in Iran. Iran should deal with protests in Iran! Seems logical; have we learned nothing from the past?
Any action by a westerner is going to be seen as a crusade.
Recent history has shown that when we try to impose ourselves by talk or walk in the Middle East, it ends badly for us.
We talked tough when the Shiite were protesting against Saddam, then we did nothing to help them. They were slaughtered.
Bushbots - Reality check time: (1)Bush SHOULD NOT have won the 2000 election, but he did not “steal it.” It wasn’t his fault the Gore voters in South Florida were either too senile or insufficiently literate to understand how to mark a butterfly ballot. (2) Bush clearly won 2004 and the only people who don’t understand that are the Michael Moor-ons. Despite two years of concerted effort by the press and Hollywood, Bush still won three more states in 2004 than he did in 2000. But by all means, it’s a hot day. Pour yourself another glass of blue Kool-aid.
Joe:
I can’t have any more kool-aid, you polished the pitcher off before any of us could get any.
I wonder if Don Cheadle will be available to star in the inevitable upcoming movie, “Hotel Tehran.”
Joe L.
You are correct, Bush didn’t steal the election on ‘00. It was handed to him, not by the voters but by the krytocracy in a 5-4 rulling to stop counting people’s votes in Florida.
Where was Katherine Harris during the election in Iran?
Similar activity in Ohio in ‘04.
This affair is up to the Iranians. If they really hate the treatment they are getting from their leaders then it’s time to get new leaders. For the record both sides of this argument were responsible for the take-over of our embassy. If they don’t have the gumption to get it stopped then they should follow the laws and shut up.
I probably could use a drink, Bushbot, because schooling Bushaphobes is thirsty work. I assume that you - like Jellio - still need to have the 2000 explained to you (though your mind is made up and impervious to fact.) But I’ll try - sigh! - once again: If all of the Floridians wanting to vote for Gore had cast their ballots properly, Bush would not have been president. Thousands of South Florida voters punched the ballot for Pat Buchanan, thinking they were voting for Gore. But that was their fault. The Supreme Court stepped in to prevent a handful of Florida county clerks from “creatively interpreting” the indentations on ballots and - in effect - stealing the election for Gore. I recall seeing footage of county officials screaming that they were going to keep counting “until they got it ‘right’.” I still don’t see why some persist in complaining about 2004, when Bush won decisively. It would be like me complaining about the college students who voted once on campus and again in their hometowns for Obama last November. It’s a done deal and now it’s time to move on.
Visible, you are incorrect. Iran continues to support Hezbollah. Please do something different that you did in public school and study. Study Hezbollah to see how many Americans they have killed over the years. Palestine isn’t attacking anyone? I’ll assume you mean the Palestinians since Egypt, Lebanon, and Syrial have not given them their land back and there is no Palestine. Please do the studying, again, on how many Israelis have been injured or killed by rocket attacks by the Palestinians from the West Bank. If you can’t do your studying, re-apply for your GED then, perhaps, get a private school education.
As for other comments about Obama staying out of the conflict, the US should always do what is good for the US. Does anyone remember Reagan’s “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down these walls!”? He was very clear about his support for democracy in the Soviet Union and said as much. He also made sure we had covert support of those dissidents in the Soviet Union as well as Poland. We missed many opportunities during the Bush Administration to support Iranian dissidents by pumping money into their cause. We could have spent money on helping with the websites, marketing, etc…anything to help the dissidents. We should do the same now. Obama should be very clear that we support free elections and free will…everywhere in the world..including Iran. There is a reason that the signs that the protesters are carrying are in english…
Visible: Nice speech BUT you should cite your sources. Now C’mon now. You know you didn’t write that. Now let’s tell the folks where you plagairized it from. If you don’t I will.