I know that this site isn't a political one, but I can't help it if every once in a while politics and my love of writing and free speech coincide with one another.
I stumbled across this article by Laura Secor in The New Yorker today: An Iranian Journalist Waits for Obama. It is very well written, and I just love the ending, where we learn that our President's last name means "He is with us" in Farsi. And the question posed, which is virtually what this brave Iranian journalist , her paper, and the many hundreds of Iranians seeking for change are posing: Is President Obama going to stand with (and possibly for) us?
In essence, the American people have been wondering the same thing. Of course, on a less emotionally charged scale, and without the very real fears of death and improsonment that the reformist Iranians feel.
International Policy is perhaps one of the most elusive, tantalizing, and cruel bedfellows any administration must deal with. On the one hand, Obama's silence on the Iranian issue proves cautious and to some, perhaps prudent, in an era following the fierce resentment and protestations against the decision of messing with Iraq. Also, with the nation's economy faltering and teetering, the logic may be that a president must be the executive leader of the American people first and foremost. Arguably, very sound advice.
Still, there is something almost hypocritical with the way Obama administration is refusing to weigh in on the Iranian election, and subsequent turmoil. Maybe it is because, on the 22 of July, in another nation where the populace has clashed with its government and has demanded freedom, our Vice President, in speaking for the administration had this to say:
I know times are difficult for many today, but I’m inspired, and still inspired, as many Americans are, by what happened here less than five years ago. That sea of orange that flooded Independence Square, the hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians who poured into Kyiv demanding peacefully that their votes be counted and that their voices be heard, is something that will not be forgotten for a long, long time. . .
When your children look back, what will they say of us? What will they say of what the United States did to help or not help? And what will they say of all of you. My sincere prayer is they will say that it was the beginning, the beginning of a dream we have dreamt for over 400 years. I pray to God that happens, because quite frankly, your success will bear on the success or failure of many peoples in this part of the world.
I thank you for giving me the honor of being here, for listening. And I sincerely hope that you understand I know we don't have all the answers, but I know your answer lies in freedom. And freedom lies in the development of genuine democratic institutions. I wish you the best, and we stand ready to walk that path with you.
So apparently Vice President Biden, and I can safely assume the administration, are inspired by the bravery of those who demanded their "votes be counted" and are willing to "walk that path" of Democracy with a country who for years has been working on the process, so why not with a budding one like Iran?
Or maybe the hypcocrisy is a little more subtle. Maybe it is because Obama's own rise to the White House, his own campaign for change, in essence his very real revolution, relied so heavily, first, at the grass-roots efforts of web media and secondly, on mainstream media.
I find it interesting that the very same spirit for freedom, transparent government, and "change that one can believe in" found in Iran is utilizing the same vehicle that has brought the Obama Administration to the Washington. More interesting, still, is the deaf ear this vehicle is receiving.
Is this wise? Surely, no one wants another Iraq, or the mess that Iran left us in 1979. But here, the difference is that for once, somebody in the Middle East (aside from Israel, whom we maybe aren't treating as kindly as we ought) is seeking us - and in a positive way. Will we allienate a possible future ally - and maybe solidfy a negative and threatening view - because we were slow to respond to even their small requests for hope? What will the children of the Iranians say of "what the United States did to help or not help?"
And when that reckoning happens, what hope will be left for us?