Despite our current President’s reluctance to adequately value Liberty in the big bad World, evidenced by his half-hearted, fool-headed response to freedom seekers in Iran and his flagrantly appalling response to the Honduran's trying to preserve their democracy, American Independence is still worthy of universal celebration, as it has benefited the earth many times over. Our Declaration of Independence is a tenacious piece of paper whose spirit still ripples outward from Manifest Destiny and beyond: to the fledgling democracies in Eastern Europe under the ominous shadow of the Russian bear; to the world's second largest economy in East Asia enjoying unprecedented freedoms and prosperity; to the Parisian youth enjoying his right to demonstrate; to the Shiite in Basra free to take part in her government; to the South Korean, mourning the plight of family living in the North, but thankful people in Seoul have it a hundred-fold better; to the Vietnamese-American in every state of the Union enjoying prosperity instead of being cold and dead; to Afghan girls, still bearing a lot of oppression, but able to go to a school; to the Italian that remembers Mussolini and Hitler - American Independence was there.God bless our forefathers for their incredible contribution to mankind and to the heroic men and women who have fought to defend it.
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2 comments:
The President should be cautious about encouraging an uprising he's not going to support materially. After the Gulf War, George H. W. Bush encouraged the Iraqis to rise up against Saddam. They took this to mean the U. S. had their back. Unfortunately, all we were supplying was words, and thousands of out-gunned Iraqis were slaughtered.
From a Human Rights Watch report on the failed uprising:
"In their attempts to retake cities, and after consolidating control, loyalist forces killed thousands of anyone who opposes them whether a rebel or a civilian by firing indiscriminately into the opposing areas; executing them on the streets, in homes and in hospitals; rounding up suspects, especially young men, during house-to-house searches, and arresting them with or without charge or shooting them en masse; and using helicopters to attack those who try to flee the cities."
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1991_uprisings_in_Iraq
I haven’t heard anyone suggest that the President encourage the protesters to stick their necks out such as the first Bush did regarding the Iraqis. I think that’s missing the point. Iranians are already sticking their necks out. It’s not too much to expect the President express, at the very least, moral support for anyone wanting freedom and to signal to protestors and the regime that the US won’t even consider negotiating with a regime that kills and brutalizes its own people. It took Obama over a week to do the decent thing, but in that week, he recklessly expressed confidence that the Supreme Leader understood the peoples’ frustrations and would resolve it and he let the regime pretty much know that regardless of what they did, he would not threaten any consequence beyond, perhaps, some perverse and meaningless moral calculus as to when we could start negotiating after a crackdown. Let’s see, would that be a week delay for every protestor killed? or a day for every Youtube video of a beating or shooting? I guess his Iranian Negotiation Czar will have to do that math.
When Obama did finally say something supporting the Iranians, it didn’t hold as much water because: 1) he spent a week showing the opposite and who’d believe his sincerity now? and 2) he was only saying something now because his initial tack was getting too embarrassing to adhere to. That’s hardly leadership. To this day I’m not sure he understands what the protestors are saying. In fact, his comments indicate he does not. Someday Iranians will overthrow their oppressors, and they’ll remember who was on their side. Unless he mans up, Obama won’t be on that list and that will hurt America.
Credit to Hillary Clinton for being quicker on the draw than the President. He should have listened to her sooner.
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