Today's statement from the President on Iran, good but about three days late:
The Iranian government must understand that the world is watching. We mourn each and every innocent life that is lost. We call on the Iranian government to stop all violent and unjust actions against its own people. The universal rights to assembly and free speech must be respected, and the United States stands with all who seek to exercise those rights.
As I said in Cairo, suppressing ideas never succeeds in making them go away. The Iranian people will ultimately judge the actions of their own government. If the Iranian government seeks the respect of the international community, it must respect the dignity of its own people and govern through consent, not coercion.
Martin Luther King once said -- "The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice." I believe that. The international community believes that. And right now, we are bearing witness to the Iranian peoples' belief in that truth, and we will continue to bear witness.
Should have been, within hours after the "victory" was announced:
"I umm.... call into uhh-question.... Umm, the ability of any nation...... Ahh.. to count 30 million..... Ahh-handwritten votes, by hand. Ahhh-without machines or computers... in just two hours. Or even twelve. Ummm-my concern... is the physical impossibility of that...... Ahh.. unless they had about a half million...... Umm-people doing the counting.... Ahh-and started counting..... Umm... right when the polls opened. Not even our friends the Japanese..... Umm-are that efficient."
Oh and:He should take his own words to heart.must respect the dignity of its own people and govern through consent, not coercion.
That is exactly how I feel. In his own 'at war with the English language way', Bush would have very directly and very understandably made it known that people who strive for liberty and freedom are the brothers of Americans who wish them well. Governments that strive to remove liberty freedom are at odds with our beliefs.
Obama's first statement left me embarrased to be an American.
It's tough to define what a wimpy statement from the most powerful man in world is, but I know it when I hear it.