Crossposted from Hillbilly Report.
Republican politicians think they see blood in the water on the response by the Iranian people to the election farce over there. I think one thing that all Americans can agree on is that these elections were rigged and unfair. The Iranian people, despite the oppression of their government theocracy realize it too, and have taken to the streets to voice their dissent.
However, the fact that these elections were a farce is about the only thing that Conservatives and Progressives can agree on. I still remember all the calls last year by the neo-Conservatives to bomb the Iranians for their alleged nuclear weapons program.
At the time I argued that the Iranian people were much more Progressive than their government and that bombings in that country could serve to raise anti-Americanism and turn the newly freedom-seeking people of Iran against western-style Democracy.
Fortunately, events now have borne that view out. Just think if we would have listened to men like Dick Cheney, Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity. Surely civilians deaths would have occured which would have pulled the Iranian people closer to their government and probably pre-empted this new movement in Iran and nullified it before ever being concieved by these injustices.
Well, now the folks that have gotten it completely wrong on not only Iran, but on Iraq and Afganistan are at it once again. They cannot accept the fact that their narrow-minded hate-filled vision of the world has been completely proven as idiocy. They are attacking Obama for not doing more on Iran:
"A direct parallel is now being drawn between the fight for freedom from Islamist tyranny in Iran and across the Middle East and the fight decades earlier for freedom from Soviet tyranny," said Nile Gardiner, director of the Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom at the conservative Heritage Foundation.
"It's almost as if the president lacks confidence in the greatness of his own nation," he added. "He seems unwilling to aggressively project American global power, as if it were something to be ashamed of."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/...
Yes, it appears as if their solution to every problem is American weapons of war, and the deaths of thousands of innocent people and American servicemen as well as the further draining of our economy at a time of recession caused by Conservative policies of greed. When will they learn that America can simply no longer police the whole world?? We have not the moral standing or the treasure to.
Of course, Republicans true to form not only were calling for more war, but never miss an opportunity to revisit their favorite passtime, Reagan worship:
But Republicans clearly see Obama's approach to foreign policy as a potential weakness. On Sunday, Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) called Obama's response "timid and passive" on ABC's "This Week." He cited Reagan's 1987 speech at the Brandenburg Gate, where he called on Russia's Mikhail Gorbachev to "tear down this wall," in urging Obama to "speak truth to power."
In his appearance on CBS's "Face the Nation," McCain compared Twitter, Facebook and YouTube to the printing presses that the United States provided in the early 1980s to the Solidarity leaders in Gdansk, Poland, to help them spread their anti-Soviet message. He recalled his meeting with Natan Sharansky, the former Soviet dissident, who told him that Reagan's "evil empire speech" had "spread like wildfire throughout the gulag."
"We've seen this movie before," McCain said. "And I don't consider it meddling when you stand on the side of principles that made our nation the greatest nation in history."
And as usual, while bowing at the altar of Reaganism the Republicans are using hollow arguments that spring from a totally misled and failed world view:
"Iran is not a country behind an iron curtain, and there's a much wider range of information that permeates, a much greater interaction with the world, and a much different view of American history," said Suzanne Maloney, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution's Saban Center for Middle East Policy. "There's a certain inevitability to these Cold War analogies. But the president has been right on the money in asserting the need to keep us out of this debate."
Obama has condemned the violence as "unjust" and endorsed the "universal principle" of peaceful protest, an approach informed by a sense that America's troubled place in Iranian history would undermine the demonstrators by coloring their cause as a U.S. interest.
However, Obama DID give an inspirational speech in his own right that may have planted the seeds of dissention in the Iranian people:
His Cairo speech sought to clear the air -- in Iran's case, by acknowledging the U.S. role in the 1953 coup that toppled the democratically elected prime minister, Mohammad Mossadegh. Translated into Farsi, the speech was delivered to Iranians in real time through a State Department-sponsored text-messaging service.
Obama's advisers say the outreach may have contributed to the defeat in Lebanese elections a few days later of a coalition led by Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed party, that had been predicted to win. In recent days, administration officials have pointed to the Iranian demonstrations as further evidence of Obama's possible influence in the region.
Asked Friday whether the administration believes Obama's outreach to Iran and the Muslim world is affecting events on the ground, press secretary Robert Gibbs said, "You're witnessing something that many people might not have presumed or imagined . . . just a few -- even a few weeks or a few days ago."
Obama's supporters on Capitol Hill have argued that the Iranian demonstrators, some of whom do not favor a change in the Islamic nature of the government, should have no doubt the administration supports their cause.
Now, we are all quite used to the Republicans and neo-Conservatives that control them showing their total and complete idiocy on issues both foreign and domestic, but idiocy is not their only trademark. You also have hypocrisy.
Why, when they were beating the war drums against Iran last year, and are critisizing a responsible approach to Iran did they hypocritically block sanctions against the Iranian regime late last year??:
Republicans blocked Iran sanctions legislation in the US Senate. Senator Wayne Allard (R-Colo.) exercised his prerogative Thursday to object to consideration of legislation that had passed last week in the US House of Representatives.
The bill consolidates two earlier bills that had languished in the Senate because of tactical obstructions imposed by Republicans: one targets Iran's banking system, bans US dealings with entities that deal with Iran's energy sector, and closes loopholes that allow US companies to deal with Iran through foreign subsidiaries; the other facilitates divestment from Iran by naming companies that deal with the Islamic Republic and by protecting entities that divest from lawsuits.
The White House opposes the legislation in part because it encroaches on the president's foreign policy prerogatives, but Senate Republicans - who have voiced support for such legislation - have yet to make clear why they are blocking it. Senate Democrats accuse them of not wanting to hand a legislative victory to Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) who is running for president and who authored the divestment language.
Allard said he objected because "the Banking Committee is working on new language," even though the new legislation is sponsored by that committee's chairman, Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) and its ranking member, Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.). The bill is unlikely to again be considered in the Senate before it adjourns; the body will probably wrap up its session by this weekend.
http://www.payvand.com/...
So there you have it. These tough-talking chickenhawks while calling for tough action against Iran actually blocked legislation last year to put sanctions on the Islamic theocracy there. Why?? The almighty profit. They could not stand to tell their corporate handlers they could not do business with Iran. Once again while touting Democracy and Christian values the only god these folks really worship is Mammon.
Harry Reid lamented the blocking of Iran sanctions last year:
Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.), the majority leader, excoriated Republicans for opposing the bill.
"I want the record to reflect that this very important legislation upholds sanctions with respect to Iran, provides for the divestment of assets in Iran by state and local governments and other entities and to identify locations of concern with respect to transshipment, or diversion of certain sensitive items to Iran," Reid said after Allard's objection.
"We've tried to get this done in this body, there's been objection by the Republicans - that's unfortunate."
Unfortunate indeed. It is unfortunate that the modern Republican Party has no ideas short of profits, warfare, and Reagan worship. Their misled view of the world could have nullified the protests stemming in Iran from this election with American bombs and now they want to act like experts when every policy they had free reign to implement for six years failed completely and miserably. Their big talk adds up to nothing more than idiocy and hypocrisy, trademarks of the modern Republican Party.