Iran to Obama: I Thought You Were Different?

President Ahmadinejad’s response to President Obama’s pathetic attempt at condemning his crackdown on dissidents had some interesting tones to it and is very telling about how the rest of the world views the US. Basically, he said, “I thought you different from Bush, you’re not supposed to talk to me that way. I would expect that from President Bush, but not you. You have caved into pressure from the evil Republicans. If you are going to treat me that way then I am going to take my ball and go home”.
It’s obvious that Ahmadinejad thinks the US, under Obama, is not carrying a big stick anymore. Threats from the US carry no weight because he believes that any threat made by the Obama Administration is an idle threat at best. Comparing Obama response to President Reagan’s responses to Brezhnev’s actions against the Poles in the 1980’s. Reagan used terms like “Evil Empire” and strongly condemned the Russian actions against the Poles. Reagan looked as demonstrations similar to the ones that are occurring in Iran and said that the sight was “thrilling”. There was no standing on the sidelines and letting democracy be squashed by a communist regime.
In contrast, while people were dying in the streets in the streets of Iran for democracy, Obama’s initial response was, "It is up to Iranians to make decisions about who Iran's leaders will be. We respect Iranian sovereignty and want to avoid the United States being the issue inside of Iran." Obama was definitely standing on the sidelines
It took pressure from the Republican leadership and resolutions from Congress for Obama to finally issue a stronger response. Though this response was firmer in support of democracy he still softened the blow with phrases like "I'm very concerned based on some of the tenor and tone of the statements that have been made that the government of Iran recognizes that the world is watching," he said. "How they approach and deal with people who are, through peaceful means, trying to be heard will, I think, send a pretty clear signal to the international community about what Iran is and is not."
America needs to be the the beacon of democracy. We need to be a beacon of hope. President Reagan said it best in his speech The Shining City Upon a Hill: We cannot escape our destiny, nor should we try to do so. The leadership of the free world was thrust upon us two centuries ago in that little hall of Philadelphia. In the days following World War II, when the economic strength and power of America was all that stood between the world and the return to the dark ages, Pope Pius XII said, “The American people have a great genius for splendid and unselfish actions. Into the hands of America God has placed the destinies of an afflicted mankind.”
We are indeed, and we are today, the last best hope of man on earth.
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