Barack's Obeisance Tour, Part III - Iran

As you know, OffHisMeds has been keeping tally of President Obama's more grandiose gestures of Abasement to the Dictators of the world. This is the third installment in this critique, amazing when you think that Barack Obama has been president only four months. But then, he's been a busy Apologizer-In-Chief.

The latest opportunity came when Iran rigged their Presidential elections last week, with the incumbent Terrorist Mahmoud Ahmadinejad beating the Terrorist Challenger Mir Hossein Mousavi. With a vote-counting efficiency that would have amazed even the most cynical Chicago Ward Heeler, Ahmadinejad's minions had all the votes counted before the polls were closed, declaring him the victor by a margin of two to one.

Now, it could be that Obama's voice was initially stilled because he was willing to give the Iranian regime the benefit of the doubt on the vote count, inasmuch as he hatched his political career in Chicago, where the margin of victory for Democrats frequently exceeds 90%, and generally includes more voters than could be accounted for by census. OffHisMeds might argue that the only discernable difference between the Chicago Bosses and the Mullahs of the Guardian Council is headgear and marital customs, but OHM does not wish to seem cynical.

When he finally did rouse himself to comment on the rigged elections, President Obama made all the predictable noises, and his comments covered what for him is now familiar ground: "respect for another country's sovereignty..........America interfering is what causes these kinds of problems in the first place..........having an opinion about Democracy inflames the Arab Street, etc., etc". Although we've heard it all before, it still amazes me that Obama can always manage to take the most off-beat topic, and turn it into an opportunity to apologize for America, even when criticizing the sham elections of a brutal Islamic Oligarchy that has murdered American soldiers, imprisoned American citizens and is committed to wiping America off the face of the map.

With the Iranian elections, however, Obama has taken his Apology game to a whole new level. Apparently having tired of apologizing strictly for America, he is now apologizing for Democracy. Granted, good, bad or indifferent, there's not a lot a U.S. President could have said about the Iranian non-elections that would have amounted to a hill of beans. Oh sure, he could have at least tossed the freedom-loving peoples of Iran a bone by expressing disapproval about the Iranian regime killing protestors in the street, but you know Obama, always above the fray, eye on the big prize, gazing heroically out to the horizon.

No sense getting all roiled up about a few casualties at Iranian polling stations.

As the protests mounted in the streets in the following days, Obama made things worse by a) praising Grand Ayatollah Ali Khameni for his "restraint" against the protestors, and b) by using the honorific "Supreme Leader" to describe Khameni. No doubt, Obama wishes that he too could use such "restraint" on protesters back home - starting with those troublesome Tea Partiers - and something tells me that anybody who describes himself as "the one that we've been waiting for", would probably not look askew at being described as the "Supreme Leader". Time will tell.

As was to be expected, his suckup to Khameni was immediately thrown back in his face, as the Grand Ayatollah lashed out against the protestors mere hours after Obama's flattery, and sent his paramilitary into the streets for a serious ass-whooping directly after that. Having thus been humiliated, Obama resorted to what for him was harsh language, calling the actions of the Iranian government "violent and unjust". Well, better late than never, I suppose, but it does call into question what it is that Barack Obama believes in, if anything. He lives in a society that promotes Freedom and Democracy. Freedom and Democracy have provided him his education, jobs and political opportunities. In other words, Freedom and Democracy have been very, very good to Barack Obama.

Seems like the least he could do is rouse himself to say so publicly, and for the benefit of the Iranian people.

Since the Presidential campaign, Obama has made much of his historical illiteracy, using it to defend himself whenever he felt a slight coming on. His favorite expression is to point out that he was only "four years old" or "two years old", etc., at the point in time that somebody associated with him was doing something bad. Recent examples include his excuse that the activities of his friend and domestic Terrorist William Ayres were not his fault because he "was only eight at the time", as well as his recent admonition to former Commie dictator Daniel Ortega not to blame him for supposed human rights violations perpetrated in Central and South America "before he was born".

Well, Obama was seventeen when the Mullahs crushed the nascent democracy then growing in Iran under the Shah, and while he certainly can't be held responsible for that, he can be held responsible for not reading a book, a magazine or a newspaper since then. He can be held accountable for a willful ignorance that is painful to watch, and which manifests itself as capitulation to the forces of darkness. And he should certainly be held accountable when his every utterance and action make it hard to differentiate him from the Mullahs.

Sundry pundits have observed that, while Barack offers no criticism of dictatorships like Iran and Saudi Arabia, and indeed goes out of his way to praise them, he's got plenty of criticism for Democracies like Israel and Columbia. The dichotomy is striking, but it should not be a surprise.

I predict that we're not done with Obama's Apologies, but I will make a prediction: there will be a backlash, and soon. How Obama responds to that will tell us a lot about whose side he's on.