Mike Pence Undermines the Iranian People
Posted by Adam Blickstein
Out of touch conservatives continue to fall off their rocker over the situation in Iran.
President Obama has made it explicitly clear that it would be counter-productive for the U.S. to intervene in the Iranian election and take sides in the political turmoil now roiling the nation. Indeed, even former Bush administration State Department spokesman Nick Burns said:
"President Ahmadinejad would like nothing better than to see aggressive statements, a series of statements, from the United States which try to put the US at the center of this, and I think President Obama is avoiding that, quietly rightly."
And the most important (if not only) Republican spokesperson on foreign policy, Sen. Dick Lugar, concurs with the President and Nick Burns:
And someone with very erratic views on national security, Pat Buchanan, actually made complete and eloquent sense, concurring with the President, Burns and Lugar:
So leave it to complete Republican political hack Mike Pence to play into the hands of Iran's oppressive regime and do exactly what Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has been waiting for:
There is nothing that the very people Pence is decrying would like more than to show how this is an "us versus America" battle and paint the dissidents and Mousavi as tools of the American government. And creating at least an appearance of disunity in the American government provides ample ammunition for the regime and Ahmadinajad government to do just that. Pence is treading on some pretty dangerous ground, and he will invariably become a talking point for the thugs and Iranian officials who are attacking the opposition and embarking on violent suppression of dissident Iranians. I just hope Pence understands that political posturing like this should stop at the water's edge, especially when thousands of lives and the future of a nation are at stake.
But for Pence and other Republicans, they really seem to care more about themselves and their own political lives than the actual lives of the Iranian people.
And this is something, at least anecdotally, Iranians deeply understand and appreciate:
I'm an Iranian living in Canada. A few hours ago I talked to my brother who is a student at Sharif University, he was at the big rally yesterday and they were only feet away from Karoubi when they marched from the university entrance to Azadi square. He asked what had Obama had said and I started reading the transcript. When I got to "the United States can be a handy political football, or discussions with the United States [can be]" my brother sighed and said thank God this guy gets it.
But for Pence and other Republicans, they really seem to care more about themselves and their own political lives than the actual lives of the Iranian people.
Since neoconservative were quite clear about wanting an Ahmadinejad win in the first place, perhaps what people like Pence and McCain are hoping for is that they can both sink Mousavi completely and get some domestic demagogic mileage with their poorly-informed constituents at the same time.
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