The World Is Moving On in Its Hypocrisy

Instead of coming forward with a decisive statement against Iranian oppression, Obama again chooses to sniff around. When dealing with friends, he behaves in a hazing manner.

Anyone who has felt a feeling of déjà vu during the past few days, in the light of the reactions in the world to the turmoil beginning again in Iran, is not mistaken. The pictures and the feelings are identical. The riots and the protests are reminiscent of those of a year and a half ago, a minute after the Iranian regime reinvented the multiplication table in the course of counting ballots at the polls. Even the violence from the side of the Iranian security forces is not much different from then. Actually, it’s harsher. Before, they waited a little bit before starting to fire live ammunition at the demonstrators. This time, it looks like in Tehran they decided to shorten the commands for opening fire and summarize them into one simple rule: shooting whenever you have time. And, if possible, the more the better.

It’s not that we were thinking that the year and a half which passed since the previous time would cause the Revolutionary Guards to embrace the “speak to me with flowers” line of thought. On the contrary. It was clear that on Ahmadinejad’s side they would prepare correspondingly and draw lessons from the past events. The disappointment mainly springs from the spinelessness and cowardice being shown by the West, at least in the first days of the uproar — the days that are undoubtedly the most critical. These are days when the dynamic of the protest is created (or not). This is the way it was in Egypt, and this is the way it was in Tunisia. The intensity of the uprising in these days, together with the international push, will determine whether it is gaining momentum or dying out at an early stage.

Yet instead of rising and speaking out clearly and firmly, the American president chooses once again to just sniff around, without touching the point itself. Instead of threatening with sanctions and punishments against the government in Tehran in case they keep on shooting at the protesters, he chooses to tell the world that the Iranian leadership is acting hypocritically. Wait, really? What kind of elite intelligence does he employ there in Washington that is able to arrive at such insights? It’s very possible that if Obama served as an analyst on one of the TV channels, his comments could have been interesting. But this is exactly where the border lies between someone who’s watching the situation from afar and delivering what he sees and someone who is supposed to influence that situation.

The Time Has Come to Use the Money

What’s amazing in this whole story is that actually, when it comes to friends (Israel) or regimes which are counted among the more reasonable and sane non-democratic regimes (Egypt), Obama prefers an approach of hazing. And if it’s possible to perform it through public humiliation, all the better. He already did it to the Israeli prime minister, and he did it in the last weeks to the former president of Egypt, Hosni Mubarak.

And so Obama comes out before the press, a day after the beginning of the unrest in Tehran, and expresses some vague hope for introducing democratic values into the state of Ayatollahs. Bravo! Think for a moment of a thirsty person who walks by a grocery store. Instead of using the money in his pocket to buy a bottle of water, he is content with telling a friend beside him that he is really thirsty and then continues on his way.

It’s time to make the use of money, Mr. President. Call for the European countries to condemn, one after another, shooting at civilians in Tehran. Assemble the Security Council in order to adopt a resolution imposing sanctions on Iran if the fire, mass arrests and torture will continue there! Give a diplomatic kick in the ass to the Turkish president, who, in the full swing of the mayhem in Iran, is meeting with Ahmedinejad, warmly shaking his hand and not bothering to denounce in one sentence the brutality of the regime toward the young people who are out to protest. Mr. President, there is no “I can’t.” There is “I don’t want.” And for a long time already, you haven’t really wanted.