When the post-election protests broke out the WH went out of its way to obsequiously suck up to the mullahs, taking the risk of deflating the dissidents, until public outrage forced them to withdraw their hot dogs and lemonade offers. Then Gibbs confirmed Ahmadinejad’s legitimacy on the eve of the inauguration, potentially tipping the decision calculus of protesters, until public outcry forced him to issue noncommittal “the Iranian people will decide” talking points. The goal all along has been to avoid the perception of meddling by never taking a stand when it mattered, among other things on the gamble that the regime would survive and Obama would want to engage it.
It was a supine and disgraceful policy. It would never have been convincing because Iran and its leaders are true believers in conspiracy theories about omnipresent Western manipulation. Even if it had been convincing it would have been futile because engagement won’t work. But at least it was a consistent supine, disgraceful, unconvincing, and ultimately futile policy.
And now this crap:
“We did not want to get between the legitimate protests and demonstrations of the Iranian people and the leadership,” Clinton said in an interview with CNN broadcast on Sunday. “And we knew that if we stepped in too soon, too hard… the leadership would try to use us to unify the country against the protestors.” “Now, behind the scenes, we were doing a lot,” Clinton said. “We were doing a lot to really empower the protestors without getting in the way. And we’re continuing to speak out and support the opposition.“
I only caught the interview because Iranian Tweeters are going ballistic about it. Apparently Iran state media is plastering it all over the airwaves. No wonder Iranian MPs just doubled down on Western “meddling.”
This gem recently appeared as a brand new YouTube video on an account with this bio: “Sign the petition to try the corrupted Iranian opposition leaders (Rafsanjani, Khatami, Mousavi and Karroubi). While some responsible of the attempt of ‘velvet revolution’ against Iran are facing trials and admitting cooperation with foreign powers, intelligence agencies and terrorist groups, the US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, makes her own confessions.” If this is what they’re pushing into the English-speaking world, imagine what’s being produced for domestic consumption.
I’ve removed the final frames from this propaganda. The clip originally ended with a pictures of Mousavi, Khatami, and Rafsanjani underneath text calling to “FREE IRAN from the Reformist/Moderate mafias,” plus the url of the anti-dissident petition. It also had a menu with links to a range of other filth, including a video implying Neda was killed by “secularists.”
Perfect:
Actually the State Department had little to nothing to do with Twitter staying open. The Twitter CEOs were more than smart enough to figure out that a “highly visible global event” was an opportunity they didn’t want to screw up. As for giving Iranian dissidents financial or logistical support: Obama zeroed that out of the 2010 budget.
And yet Clinton’s comments still forced Larijani – who once had come perilously close to opposing the election – to respond by siding with the regime against “Western powers.”
Somehow the Obama administration has managed to garner all the negatives of boosting Iranian pro-democracy dissidents without actually doing anything to boost Iranian pro-democracy dissidents. Smart power!
References and previously after the jump…
References:
* Awesome: State Publicly Reassures Iranian Diplomats They’re Still Invited To July 4th Parties [MR]
* White House: Ahmadinejad Is “The Elected Leader” Of Iran [Video] [MR]
* Obama WH: When We Confirmed Ahmadinejad’s Legitimacy Yesterday, We Didn’t Mean To Do That [MR]
* Don’t Call What Happened in Iran Last Week an Election [Hitchens]
* Clinton: Just A Head’s Up, But Engagement With Iran Probably Won’t Work [MR]
* US showed support for Iran protestors: Clinton
* Iran MPs condemn Western ‘meddling’ in Iran [AFP]
* So Twitter didn’t bow to the U.S. State Department? [FP Passport]
* Obama Increases Aid To Arab And Muslim Regimes, Zeros Out Funding For Iranian And Egyptian Democracy Mvmts [MR]
* Larijani blasts U.S., French officials [UPI]
Previously:
* Aww: Obama Hits The Reset Button With Al Jazeera’s Anti-American Islamist Managing Director
* Clinton: Oh, By The Way, Engaging North Korea Probably Won’t Work
* Mind-Blowing Hypocrisy: US Leads Int’l Attacks On Israel For Evicting Illegal Palestinian Squatters From East J’lem After Igniting Crisis Over Legal Jewish Residents
