Nile Gardiner published this report at The Telegraph today-
“Iranian protesters are dying for freedom – where is Barack Obama?”
I wrote back in June about the shameful silence of the Obama administration during the mass street protests that greeted Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s fraudulent re-election victory as President of Iran. As White House spokesman Robert Gibbs ludicrously put it, the administration was “impressed by the vigorous debate and enthusiasm this election generated.” Or in Vice President Joe Biden’s words on NBC’s Meet the Press, describing Ahmadinejad’s victory – “we’re going to withhold comment… I mean we’re just waiting to see.”
Embarrassingly for Washington, even many European leaders showed more backbone in condemning the Iranian regime’s brutal suppression of protestors, with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton humiliatingly outflanked by her French and German counterparts, who had no qualms about speaking out quickly and firmly against the election result and the actions of the Iranian government.
In the six months that have followed, Barack Obama’s high-risk engagement strategy has simply encouraged more repression from the Mullahs, as well as ever greater levels of defiance over Iran’s nuclear weapons programme. As Con Coughlin noted in an excellent piece for The Wall Street Journal last month, Obama’s Iran diplomacy isn’t working:
“Iranian human-rights groups say that since the government crackdown began in late June, at least 400 demonstrators have been killed while another 56 are unaccounted, which is several times higher than the official figures. The regime has established a chain of unofficial, makeshift prisons to deal with the protesters, where torture and rape are said to be commonplace. In Tehran alone, 37 young Iranian men and women are reported to have been raped by their captors.”
Now once again huge street protests have flared up on the streets of Tehran and a number of other major cities, with several protestors shot dead this weekend by the security forces and Revolutionary Guards, reportedly including the nephew of opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi, and dozens seriously injured. And again there is silence from the White House. And where is the president? On vacation in Hawaii, no doubt recovering from his exertions driving forward the monstrous health care reform bill against the overwhelming will of the American people and without a shred of bipartisan support.
So where is Barack Obama?
Here he is:
President Barack Obama is playing golf and basketball in Hawaii.
He’s decided to sit out this Iranian Revolution.
UPDATE: The Canadian Government today condemned the brutal Iranian regime after news broke the the government was shooting protesters in cold blood.
December 27th, 2009 | 5:54 pm | #1
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Sara Leslie Griffith, Paul Alyunov. Paul Alyunov said: Iranian Protesters Are Dying For Freedom – Where Is Barack Obama???: Nile Gardiner published this report .. http://bit.ly/4Fqtmd [...]
December 27th, 2009 | 6:00 pm | #2
The Kenyan is going to sit out anything that does not harm The United States. And advance anything that will hasten it’s destruction.
Like we did not know that already.
December 27th, 2009 | 6:08 pm | #3
We’ve got Belshazzar the Party Animal who thought being in charge meant lolling about, wining and feasting while the Medes and the Persians snuck inside the city walls …
wait a minute … uh oh.
December 27th, 2009 | 6:10 pm | #4
Chavez’s bitch doesn’t support popular uprisings against tyrants and lunatics? Who knew?
December 27th, 2009 | 6:12 pm | #5
Once again, in a situation that calls for a principled voice of world leadership, we have the Bolshevik Boy Wonder out on the links … pathetic.
Did this self-absorbed twit learn nothing from Jimmy Carter’s misguided accommodation of this vile, apocalyptic regime?
Nor from Ronald Reagan’s brave and principled support of Solidarity in Poland… thus freeing millions?
December 27th, 2009 | 6:14 pm | #6
Sorry but uprisings are not popular with the regimes we are trying to befriend.
December 27th, 2009 | 6:45 pm | #7
Obummer’s on vacation, busy playing with his peace prize…
.
December 27th, 2009 | 6:58 pm | #8
All facts point to the realization that Obama is on the other side.
December 27th, 2009 | 7:26 pm | #9
How dare you all criticize a black president. Just because he doesn’t interrupt his golfing to mention a meaningless non-event like an ATTEMPTED bombing. Don’t you realize how racist you all are?? After all, Janet Napolitano says everything went just as planned. You see, Jan KNEW the detenator would malfunction, so what’s the big deal? See how smart and in charge Janet and Barry are? Oh no, it’s all just RACISM here. (sarc off).
December 27th, 2009 | 7:29 pm | #10
I commented earlier about this in your other post. All I have to add is that we all need to stop thinking that Obama is going to act like a President committed to freedom. He’s not. His actions and his desires are the exact opposite as he has his people design domestic programs that strip individual responsibility and freedom from his citizens under the guise of “good government.”
He’s not interested in promoting a people rebelling against what he deems “good,” even though it may a more strident version of his theory of government – control is control. If we witness Iran standing up against an oppressive administration, demanding freedom, could the same thing happen here? Next year, the year after that, ten years?
The sooner you realize Obama is not “Presidential” in the sense he is a mentally mature man ready to accept and understand the responsibility that is part of being President the sooner we’ll quit being disappointed by his non reaction.
Clinton thought being President was cool, and didn’t take it serious at all. A more “hold my beer and watch this” approach. Obama thinks being President is a tool to reach his supporter’s ultimate goal which it remake this nation’s future. Anything else is a distraction.
Good luck to the people of Iran, they are on their own.
Anybody missing GWB yet?
December 27th, 2009 | 7:36 pm | #11
This development is ‘above his pay grade’.
December 27th, 2009 | 7:58 pm | #12
He is one of them. That is an established fact proven by his actions.
December 27th, 2009 | 8:13 pm | #13
Just in case y’all missed it (as I did), Obama got rid of American sovereignty with his latest executive order:
http://www.firstthings.com/blogs/theanchoress/2009/12/23/obama-executive-order-interpol/
And if I’m reading it right, Uncle Sam will be able to commit any injustice against individuals such as me and you–including imprisonment without charges–and so long as he makes sure all records of the action vanish into the black hole of INTERPOL, there will be absolutely no redress.
Read it for yourself and please tell me if I’m wrong.
Also, be sure to read the earlier article that she links near the end, on how to recognize a coup:
http://www.firstthings.com/blogs/theanchoress/2005/10/29/the-art-of-the-painless-coup/
THAT piece is the most clear-headed analysis of the Big Picture that I have read in quite a while. Don’t miss it; it grows more important by the day.
December 27th, 2009 | 8:37 pm | #14
This worthless piece of garbage is not interested in being a president; he likes the job because it gives him attention and the press worships him. It’s all that interests him. I don’t mean to contradict those who credit him with a more malign agenda, you could be right. I just don’t think he’s sufficiently clever or ambitious to have an agenda other than pretending to be important.
December 27th, 2009 | 8:41 pm | #15
++
Kathy from Kansas @ 8:13 pm #13
OMG!!
thanks, i did miss that post..
this no longer sounds like a conspiracy theory..
not to mention this & this.. *sigh*
==
December 27th, 2009 | 9:29 pm | #16
Geez, if they won’t wake him up to tell him about a TERRORIST ATTACK IN THE USA, why do you think he would be concerned about those people in Iran? Afterall he has a lot of parties, beach and sleep to catch up on, he can’t be bothered with what his friends in Iran are doing to their people.
December 27th, 2009 | 10:13 pm | #17
George Bush stopped playing golf because he thought it unseemly that a family might lose a member in battle while the Commander in Chief played golf. I wonder if Obama is unaware or unconcerned?
Looks like terror attacks are resuming again now that Bush is out of office. I wonder if Obama has a deal with the Muslim world that golf courses are off limits? That would be one way to stay safe. Of course, George Bush just went ahead and kept ALL of us safe here at home. Probably requires more work and more intellect, though. I still haven’t seen a transcript of the boy genius President. Doesn anyone else know if he got anything better than a “D-”?
December 27th, 2009 | 10:33 pm | #18
Isn’t this the same as voting “present”?
December 27th, 2009 | 10:39 pm | #19
obama is a turd.
He can’t do anything right. I am so embarrassed at his lack of compassion and resolve to make all people equal.
He is a walking contradiction. He will pay in the next life for the one he is leading now. Imagine the power he has been given to do something and he is effectively sitting on a golf club and rotating.
December 27th, 2009 | 10:54 pm | #20
++
The Elector of Saxony @ 10:13 pm #17
re: [Doesn anyone else know if he
got anything better than a “D-”?]
no, but i know who got him into Harvard..
==
December 27th, 2009 | 11:04 pm | #21
Obama isn’t going to say anything until China says it is OK.
December 28th, 2009 | 12:25 am | #22
Obama will never support the people of Iran protesting the corrupt sharia loving Iranian regime. Why?
Because Obama supports the Iranian regime. Why?
Because Obama wants to change America to the same type of regime. Eventually he will treat the Tea Party protesters the same way Iran treats their protesters.
December 28th, 2009 | 1:44 am | #23
what do you expect from the member of the ‘ummah’ in the honkie house?
December 28th, 2009 | 1:59 am | #24
++
Franklin @ 12:25 am #22
Obama supports Sharia too!!
Obama nominee [confirmed] supports Islamic Sharia law in U.S.
Harold Koh Confirmed
not to mention his genocidal Sharia
lovin’ commie cousin Odinga, gah!!
==
December 28th, 2009 | 3:31 am | #25
[...] Gateway Pundit, Iranian Protesters Are Dying For Freedom – Where Is Barack Obama??? Nile Gardiner published this report at The Telegraph [...]
December 28th, 2009 | 4:50 am | #26
While President43 was maligned by Dems for his “axis of evil” and belief in God installing the pursuit of liberty for all people,all I hear from Obama is”fore.
The elector of Saxony has a compelling point about Bush vs; Obama in Golf.However, in Obamas’hubris ,this is not war and golf relaxes me so I can make those choices America needs.This is just another example of a failed President.
December 28th, 2009 | 6:28 am | #27
What must be asked in order not to fall for a deception is if data fits my mind and inadequately arouses action! Inadequacy may be judged by church standards. Beware of easy judgement in light of the dire verdicts of many opposing the pope’s wish for a peaceful trajectory in a neighbouring country!
December 28th, 2009 | 7:13 am | #28
Well, everyone, Obama’s behavior is no different from that of most other leftists for the past thirty years. When the Muslims of Iran stole the revolution and turned Iran into a far-right theocracy, how many leftists protested? Almost none. When this new regime began butchering leftists, how many leftists here in the West protested? Almost none. Why expect anything different today?
Face it, in foreign affairs most leftists are now on the far right. A couple exceptions are Christopher Hitchens and Nick Cohen. Aside from them, it’s impossible to reason with these people.
December 28th, 2009 | 9:38 am | #29
I’ll concede that the President of the United States is without a doubt the Spokesperson and figurehead for the entire country and populace…
With that said, now that he has shown the entire world the top of his head, I believe the time has come to now show America’s Iron Fist.
Stand not behind, our allies, but NEXT TOO our allies. Verbally announce that we will not tolerate attacks on American soil, and we will punish serverly any country that harbors and provides succor to those that would harm Americans wherever they are.
December 28th, 2009 | 10:36 am | #30
Someone asked’
Anybody miss GWB yet?
I don’t miss his incompetence, arrogance, deceitful lies, and lack of intelligence. What’s there to miss about the biggest piece of junk president this country has ever seen?
December 28th, 2009 | 10:36 am | #31
[...] of a different president in the wake of an attempted terrorist attack on a U.S. Jetliner and an uprising against a government which has made thumbing its nose at his overtures its favorite past….Wonder if those on the left and in the media who faulted George W. Bush for his "callous" reaction [...]
December 28th, 2009 | 11:13 am | #32
One even has to wonder whether Obama knew about the upcoming terrorist attack but let everyone stand down in order to divert the nation’s attention from the health care monstrosity that just passed the Senate. Take the people’s mind off the health care bill during the recess so that Nancy and Harry can stitch something together during the cover of darkness, while the nation is diverted with another dirka dirka jihadi. So instead of people ramping up health care town halls during XMas vacation, the media is concentrating on the underwear bomber. But of course that would be preposterous.
Maybe it’s just dumb luck.
December 29th, 2009 | 9:40 am | #33
[...] Krauthammer Rips Obama’s “Flaccid, Meaningless” Words On Iranian Freedom Protests (Video) and Iranian Protesters Are Dying For Freedom – Where Is Barack Obama??? and Angela Merkel Speaks Out In Support of Iranian Freedom Protesters… Obama Heads to the Beach [...]
Links
Blogs
Find Us
Contact