Iran's Intolerable Meddling

Iran is now busy claiming that the United States is intolerably meddling in the internal affairs of Iran.

That's a rich statement.

Iran had no problem meddling in the affairs of Iraq or Lebanon via its proxies.

Let's not forget that Iran was bankrolling Moqtada al-Sadr's thugs in Basra, aiding and abetting the insurgency against the US and Iraqi forces in Iraq or the fact that EFPs were repeatedly found throughout Iraq bearing Iranian features.

Let's not forget Iran funds Hamas and Hizbullah in the ongoing war against Israel's existence.

Let's not forget that Hizbullah has inserted itself like a cancerous tumor in Lebanon, and has carved up Southern Lebanon as its own fiefdom, defying UNIFIL and international law in the process.

There is word that Hamas is busy doing Ahamdinejad's dirty work in Iran because Ahmadinejad has little faith that the IRGC - the Revolutionary Guard - may not be all it's cracked up to be and its loyalties may not be with Ahmadinejad after all.

Despite all that, Iran thinks that President Obama's bare minimum statement on the situation in Iran is meddling.

President Obama's failure to say anything in a timely fashion is because of a willing failure on his part to step up and support liberty over tyranny. He could have spoken in terms of liberty and freedom and human rights - on the scope of his Cairo speech, but he didn't. He's playing realpolitik, and doesn't understand that his reality and the politics aren't in sync.

Besides, so what if the regime claims that the US is meddling in the elections. It's what Iran's thuggish leaders would do in any event. They already laid that groundwork previously. They trumped up charges against the Alaei brothers, Roxana Saberi, and now they roll them out again. It's what dictatorships and totalitarian regimes do.

President Obama could point out the splendidly obvious, but that's meddling? Sorry, I don't buy it, and it certainly isn't going to make it easier for the regime to crack down on the opposition. We already know that the regime is more than willing to lie to further its agenda, so we're left with the fact that Obama chose to tacitly support the Ahmadinejad claims of winning the election, and has steadily backed off that as the election fraud claims became more than just claims, but factual.

Words in support of freedom and liberty are dangerous only to totalitarian dictatorships, mullahocracies and enemies of human rights. The words might not be sufficient for the people of Iran to rise up against the mullahs, but they will have the effect of giving support to those elsewhere in the world who are bolstered by dreams of liberty and freedom, and that still see the US as a shining city on the hill.

That's what President Obama doesn't get. Iran isn't in a vacuum. Neither is Iraq or Afghanistan. Overthrowing and toppling totalitarian regimes has a benefit that goes beyond just knocking off dictators. Giving people a chance to see that makes the situations in other dictatorships all the more precarious because once news filters into those regimes, it might take hold and grow.

Holding elections as Iran did was a way for the people of Iran to seem like they were choosing, but this election gave lie to that fact when it was so blatantly manipulated by Ahmadinejad and one or more mullahs.

Now, they're reaping what they've sown. President Obama should have spoken to the nature of elections as respecting the will of the people.

Heck, President Obama could have spoken of the fact that we had our own issues with elections in 2000, but noted that we had a mechanism to deal with it and the government didn't clamp down on demonstrations and there was no rioting in the streets and the government didn't murder its own citizens to retain power. It was done peacefully.

That's not what Iran is doing. Ahamdinejad is trying to grab power for himself, under the guise of an election that was anything but free and fair. It was rigged, and the evidence continues pointing in the direction of overwhelming evidence of fraud on behalf of Ahmadinejad - aided and abetted by one or more of the mullahs on the Supreme Council, including Khamenei. That's not the will of the people. That's a totalitarian regime in action.

It's time for Obama to start treating it like one instead of consorting with the idea that Iran is a representative democracy albeit with a genocidal thug at the helm.

UPDATE:
Ed Morrissey makes a similar point.