According to Obama's press secretary, Robert Gibbs, Obama is "moved" by the protesters.
Really?
I couldn't tell. What a sensitive guy!
From CNN:
Images of Iran's crackdown on street protests have "moved" President Obama, his spokesman said Monday.
At his daily media briefing, spokesman Robert Gibbs said Obama received briefings on the Iran situation and also followed events through television coverage.
"I think he has been moved by what we've seen on television," Gibbs said, adding that the president was particularly affected by images of women braving the crackdown "to speak out and be heard."
Obama has called on Iran to stop violent and unjust steps that stifle free speech, but some Republicans have criticized him for not siding more strongly with the demonstrators.
Gibbs said Obama's public statements on the situation were intended to prevent Iranian leaders from claiming that the protests were a U.S.-backed attempt to bring down the regime.
"This isn't about a foreign policy that makes us feel good," Gibbs said. "This isn't about a statement that makes us feel good or sound good on television."
What is Gibbs talking about?
What's all this "feel good" foreign policy and statement stuff?
The fact is Obama doesn't want to call out the oppressive Iranian regime.
Appeaser Obama is a wimp compared to the Europeans. The French are talking tougher than Obama. The French!
The Germans are talking tougher. The British and the Italians are also taking a tougher stance with Iran than Obama.
The Left and some Republicans are applauding Obama for not using tough rhetoric.
"The United States is the only country that can convince Iran that it is not as threatened as it thinks it is, and that's crucial to the negotiations [over Iran's disputed enrichment program]," [Robin Niblett, director of the London-based international-relations think tank Chatham House,] says. "The Obama Administration is playing it absolutely right: it is determined to convince the Iranians that its goal is not regime change. Any public denunciations could damage Obama's efforts to coax Iran out of its defensive posture."
Obama and his aides have repeatedly said they want to avoid becoming a scapegoat for Iran's leadership. "The last thing that I want to do is to have the United States be a foil for those forces inside Iran who would love nothing better than to make this an argument about the United States," the President said in an interview broadcast on Monday morning. "We shouldn't be playing into that."
What a load!
That's not really what's driving Obama.
He just wants to stay on the fence. He's not willing to unequivocally condemn the Iranian government for crushing the protesters.
Obama has no interest in being part of a united front, joining our European allies, against Iran. Instead, Obama prefers to play it safe, so safe that Obama still intends to have Iranian diplomats come to U.S. embassies for barbecues to celebrate the Fourth of July.
From AFP:
United States said Monday its invitations were still standing for Iranian diplomats to attend July 4 celebrations at US embassies despite the crackdown on opposition supporters.
President Barack Obama's administration said earlier this month it would invite Iran to US embassy barbecues for the national holiday for the first time since the two nations severed relations following the 1979 Islamic revolution.
"There's no thought to rescinding the invitations to Iranian diplomats," State Department spokesman Ian Kelly told reporters.
"We have made a strategic decision to engage on a number of fronts with Iran," Kelly said. "We tried many years of isolation, and we're pursuing a different path now."
But he said it was not clear if Iranian diplomats had accepted the invitations.
The State Department has said that the invitations are largely a symbolic gesture of goodwill and that the July 4 barbecues were not intended to take up substantive policy matters.
Obama has walked a tightrope since the violence broke out in Iran, urging the Islamic regime to end its repression of protests but insisting he will not let Tehran's leaders cast the United States as a bogeyman.
So to keep Tehran's leaders from casting the U.S. in a negative light, Obama thinks saying as little possible about the unrest in Iran and hosting Fourth of July barbecues for Iranian diplomats is the best strategy.
That's the new path that Obama wants to take.
That is so naive. It's pathetic.
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