Women protest Iranian election results - Photo by Farhad Rajabali. Creative Commons license. Source: Flickr.
When protests erupted across Iran over the weekend in response to disputed Presidential election results, the Obama administration issued some very delicate statements.
On Saturday, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said, "We obviously hope that the outcome reflects the genuine will and desire of the Iranian people."
On Sunday, Vice President Joe Biden said, "There's an awful lot of question about how this election was run. And
we'll see. I mean, we're just waiting to see. We don't have, we don't
have enough facts to note— to make a firm judgment."
And President Obama himself issued no official statement until today, when he said:
Obviously all of us have been watching
the news from Iran. And I want to start off by being very clear that
it is up to Iranians to make decisions about who Iran's leaders will
be; that we respect Iranian sovereignty and want to avoid the United
States being the issue inside of Iran, which sometimes the United
States can be a handy political football— or discussions with the
United States.
Having said all that, I am deeply
troubled by the violence that I've been seeing on television. I think
that the democratic process— free speech, the ability of people to
peacefully dissent— all those are universal values and need to be
respected. And whenever I see violence perpetrated on people who are
peacefully dissenting, and whenever the American people see that, I
think they're, rightfully, troubled.
Iran's current president, conservative hardliner Mahmoud Ahmedinejad's claims to have won the election in a landslide— despite pre-election polls that showed him in a neck-and-neck race with his more moderate opponent, Mir Hossein Mousavi; despite widespread reports of voting irregularities on election day, and despite anecdotal reports from several communities that their own records from election day do not match the officially released national results— beggars credibility.
And the current regime's iron-fisted reaction to the post-election protests— expelling international journalists from the country, blocking foreign television and radio broadcasts, blocking text messaging and access to certain websites across Iran to disrupt communications, and arresting and shooting at protesters— totally undermines whatever credibility the Iranian government had as a supposedly democratic state.
Not to mention the fact that, given our country's recent history of turbulent and frustrating relations with Ahmedinejad, our own government leaders almost certainly expect U.S. interests would be better served if Mousavi were declared the true winner.
So why the careful wording? Why hasn't the administration denounced Ahmedinejad and come out in loud, open support of Mousavi's backers, who are currently battling fierce government opposition to demand their right to free and fair elections?
Because if Obama wants Mousavi's supporters to succeed, the last thing he should do is explicitly declare his support for them.
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