Sword and Sextant

Our nation has yet to take a stand that reflects the cloth of its people on the subject of Iran. Our President is loathe to criticize clearly rigged elections, and a thug government’s brutal response to its people and their voices against the Supreme Ruler. We are busy, thanks to the President, reminding ourselves that since we’ve had blunders in the past, its much better to continually sulk over them, leaving millions of Iranians screaming for freedom to the wolves.

What on Earth are we doing coddling the most dangerous regime in the world? Does the President actually think he can talk Iran off the nuclear ledge, especially given repeated promises that they will discuss no such thing? Does he see benefit in Israeli opinion when he not only stands aside while Iran develops the bomb, but chides Israelis for building in former Palestinian territories? Really? His strongest words were for our allies in this struggle?

This nation is the freest, best nation in the world because we have escaped the shackles of enforced rule, and we fight against it wherever it may exist. If you are downtrodden or persecuted, the United States has your back. At least, that’s what millions of Iranians thought. Now they rail against a power with no ally, including the greatest champions of freedom the world has ever seen. While their overseers remove the media from the country, fire upon their own people, and threaten Mousavi with violence and exile, a populace looks across an ocean for help, and we only stare, frozen in fear. Well, not me, and probably not you. The drumbeat of freedom throbs for these people in nearly every American. You feel it every time you’re reminded that women aren’t allowed to hold many jobs, show an ankle, or even survive the wrath of their husbands on a bad day. You feel it when you see dissenters beaten and “disappeared” Soviet-style.

This is an embarrassing time for our nation. Our President is voting present on a matter that damn well could delegitimize the Ayatollah, and may even remove another radical Islamic theocracy from the area. And this isn’t any theocracy. Its the king shit radical sponsor of terror. Evil flows from the borders of Iran like so much boiling tar, scorching lives all around. Instead, he says nothing, and the cries of the oppressed deflect off his back.

This is not to say that a word of support or a friendly nod would change the Iranian balance of power, or that any new government wouldn’t be anti-American. It may allow the people of Iran to decide their own fate, however, for the first time in 50 years. If he refuses to acknowledge the goings-on in Iran, however, he legitimizes the Khamenei government, and their sure to come brutal culling of the flock. This silence is very akin to the silence and lockjaw that President Carter encountered when the Shah was begging for US aid for his US built government. Instead, he was captured and stoned to death, leading to the Ayatollahs today.

This Presidency has been a continual farce from day one, and the damage he could do to the Arab world will certainly result in increased American deaths, should they get the bomb.