Senator John McCain recently criticized President Obama for his handling of the situation in Iran. When asked what advice he would offer to the president, Senator McCain suggested that Obama should follow the example of our founding fathers "that all of us are endowed with certain unalienable rights and that it is our duty to stand up for people who are struggling for freedom."
There is absolutely nothing stated in the Declaration of Independence that suggest anything of the sort. The declaration is little more than a list of greivences that outline to King George the reasons that demonstrate that he has violated the colonists' rights and is therefore unfit to be their ruler: Yet somewhere in the minds of people like John McCain, George Bush, Dick Cheney, Karl Rove and the self-righteous at large, they believe that this document was universal and that it should apply to every nation on earth and that it thereby obligates us (the drafters of the document) to become the defenders of any nation who struggles for freedom, IT DOES NOT! -
It simply outlines very specifically what King George has done or failed to do in the interest of the colonies that has made it necessary for the Colonist to seperate from Great Britain and form a new system of Government. Nothing more, Nothing less.
Nevertheless, it all seems so hypocritical of Senator McCain to be defending the Iranian people when just a matter of months ago, he had a major hard-on to Bomb, Bomb, Bomb -- Bomb, Bomb Iran! - Cheese & Rice! - It's a good thing that he and that nutty broad didn't win the election. The streets of Tehran would be littered with Neda's from one end to the other.
Senator McCains hypocracy seemes to be limitless. McCain was not alone in these carless comments about Iran. GOP candidate Rudy Giuliani indicated he'd consider a preemptive nuclear strike on Tehran. Hardly a month passed without some Republican, along with Democrats like (now-Independent) Sen. Joe Lieberman, predicting an imminent U.S. or Israeli strike.
Inside Iran, the results were precisely the opposite of what conservatives claimed to want. The more categorically they condemned the Iranian regime, characterized President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as the "new Hitler" (the Persian George Wallace is more like it), called "Supreme Leader" Ayatollah Ali Khamenei a megalomaniacal empire builder (Iran hasn't attacked anybody in 300 years), and depicted Iranians generally as an undifferentiated mob of Islamist fanatics, the stronger, and more paranoid, the regime grew.
Notice, though, that one thing we're not hearing is Iranian, or Iranian-American, voices urging the United States to get involved. Quite the opposite. The dramatic events taking place in Iran are a homegrown manifestation of the tensions and divisions within Persian society, and of its uniquely complex and opaque political system. They won't be resolved overnight.
On a recent CSPAN appearance, he said that the British Prime Minister, The Chancellor of Germany, and the President of France have been far more outspoken about Iran while President Obama has remained "basically silent." - This sort of rhetoric is the same political theatre that was indicitive of his presidential campaign. There's nothing wrong with political theatre if you have the ability to pull it off. Senator McCain does not! - He attempted to assert that the British Prime Minister, The President of France, and the German Chancellor has all been far more outspoken on the topic of Iran than Obama.
He said that Obama had been "basically silent" on the issue. Here are the comments from those foriegn leaders that McCain pointed out, followed by the comments of President Obama which McCain equates with silence.
"The eyes of the world are upon Iran at the moment. We want Iran to be part of the international community and not to be isolated but it is for Iran to prove, not just to Britain but to the whole of the world and to their own people, that they can respect these basic rights." - GORDON BROWN British Prime Minister
"How is it that a people such as the Iranian people - one of the world's oldest civilisations, sophisticated, cultured, open - have the misfortune of being represented as they are today by some of their leaders? - NIKOLAS SARKOZY President of France
"We stand beside you all in Iran who seek to demonstrate peacefully."
- ANGELA MERKEL German Chancellor
Now here is what Barack Obama has said on three seperate ocassions. This is what John McCain equates with basic silence.
First Comment 06/15/09 - "I am deeply troubled by the violence that I've been seeing on television. I think that the democratic process, free speech, the ability for folks to peacefully dissent, all those are universal values and need to be respected."
Second Comment 06/19/09 - "I have made it clear that the United States respects the sovereignty of the Islamic Republic of Iran, and is not at all interfering in Iran's affairs. But we must also bear witness to the courage and dignity of the Iranian people, and to a remarkable opening within Iranian society. And we deplore violence against innocent civilians anywhere that it takes place."
Recent Comment 06/23/09 - "The United States and the international community have been appalled and outraged by the threats, beatings, and imprisonments of the last few days. I strongly condemn these unjust actions, and I join with the American people in mourning each and every innocent life that is lost."
- BARACK OBAMA President of The United States
Now other then President Obama calling Ahmadinejad's mother a cock-sucking whore, I'm not sure what he could have said that would have satisfied John McCain or many of his comrades on the right. Now I'm not about to paint the right as a whole into this equasion because there have been many on the right who think that Obama has chosen his words very well. It's really quite sad that John McCain continues to live in this "well if I were President" world that he has carved out for himself.
Democracy in Iraq? - Really?
Jon Stewert Thank You Boston
Colbert Report On 4th of July