Calling out the US and the UK by name, Ahmadinejad warns that Iran won't be friends if there is any interference with the protests currently underway in Iran. While Obama apparently has now decided to speak out to indicate his "disdain" for the Iranian state's repression, his text doesn't read any differently than his usual scold.
Interesting comment from John Bolton the other day on television (van Susterns' show, which I might have watched .5 airings) that it would be better if Obama just kept to his policy of silence since he is unwilling and unequipped to to "the hard things" that would need to be done to back up critical words. I have no idea what the "hard things" might be, but it seems that many of those things have already been accomplished.
Ahmadinejad is right that the West is involved in the protests, but probably not in any way that he recognizes. The very idea of liberty and enfranchisement in government affairs is at the core of the protesters' motive; they see free and legitimate elections in the neighboring states of Iraq and Afghanistan (courtesy of George Bush) and wonder why they can't have the same. Those simple indisputable facts will be more important than anything Obama can or will say. In fact, all Obama really needs to do is remind the Iranians of Iraq and Afghanistan. But he cannot, of course, because of his historical positions on those adventures.
The idea of liberty is out of Pandora's box and infecting the Middle East. No one can possibly know how it will manifest itself, yet it is fascinating to watch those who believe that very basic rights have been denied them take to the barricades in the face of armed and deadly repression.
The Second thing that strikes me about these events is, you have to wonder how things might have turned out differently if the incumbents in Iran had not over played their hand so blatantly. It is a reminder that we always have a tendency to lionize our opponents and ascribe super-human attributes to them. But like everyone else, they too can underestimate or totally misunderstand what is right in front of them, or simply act unwisely. What is that line from the Sean Connery movie?: "If you sit by the river long enough, eventually the bodies of your enemies go floating by."
UPDATE: Bolton on Fox just now, saying that Obama has tied his own hands with a policy of seeking engagement with Iran. He cannot call out the Iranian regime as the illegitimate tyranny that it is, because he wants to make nice with them over their nuclear weapons program. How odd that Obama would turn out to be such a cynical booster of realpolitik. I seem to recall that in my radical youth we regularly admonished the realists for cozying up with dictators and tyrants. Oh well. Hope and Change.
I hope that at the least the CIA is making sure that there is a never ending supply of cell phones, Flips and sat-phones into Iran.
And I have to wonder, if we were ever pressed this hard by our government, would be show as much animism as the Iranian protesters.
