Iran Uprising: Why Do So Many Want Obama to Turn Iran's Protests Into a "Teabag Party"

[Joanne98]

Obama is rightly ignoring the calls from both the right as well as within his own administration to take a stronger stand on the situation in Iran. These pleas -- such as from Sen. John McCain, Rep. Mike Pence, Paul Wolfowitz, or Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden, as reported in the New York Times Thursday -- merely reflect the stale American solipsism that's to blame for our sundered image abroad in years past. Obama has made notable progress in polishing the previous administration's tarnish, but a single slip-up at the wrong moment could reverse it all in a second.

If Obama were to speak out and side with Mousavi in the current Iranian uprising, it would transform a legitimate, organic popular movement into a GOP teabag party. As many may recall, the conservative teabag movement in April was an embarrassing flop. Though it donned the mask of a grassroots uprising, it was quickly revealed to be naught but astro-turf (fake grassroots) -- carefully orchestrated by conservative corporate lobbyists, Fox News and even the Republican Party. The result was that nobody took the "popular movement" seriously, regardless of its scale, prevalence, message or sincerity.

Those who wish for Obama to adopt a stronger tone seem to be under the delusion that everyone doesn't already know exactly where he stands. Beyond being mistakenly impetuous, explicitly choosing a side in the current conflict without knowing who will emerge on top offers no possible benefit. Though the Iranian regime already blames the West, the Iranian people are not stupid. They know full well how to spot propaganda. And fortunately, as reflected by the Supreme Leader's Friday prayer today, Europe is taking the brunt of the blame, especially the United Kingdom.

This bodes well for Obama's position. And as Suzanne Maloney of the Brookings Institution has noted, this is as it should be, considering that Europe actually has a presence in Tehran, as opposed to the US who cut off all relations in 1979. Putting the United States on the front-line would play directly into the propagandists' hands -- the propagandists who still control the levers of power in the Islamic Republic, I might add.

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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/stuart-whatley/iran-uprising-why-do-so-m_b_217890.html