When Neda Agha-Soltan bled to death on the street in Tehran, having been shot by a Iranian theocracy sniper, Barack Obama finally stirred himself to speak out in support of human rights for the people of Iran. That was June 23, 2009.
On Tuesday, President Obama called the images of Miss Agha-Soltan's death "heartbreaking."
"We have experienced the searing image of a woman bleeding to death on the streets. While this loss is raw and painful, we also know this: Those who stand up for justice are always on the right side of history," he said at a press conference.
Neda's gone, and in Washington her death is a forgotten affair. Protests are over, the theocrats in Tehran are firmly in control. Obama has moved on. He did his bit for human rights in Iran. Today he preens for the UN, showing off his diplomatic genius.
But one thing is certain. Obama's diplomatic genius will not be brought to bear to help the Iranian people, no matter how hard we might wish for it. Writing in the Weekly Standard, John P. Hannah points out that Obama has a unique opportunity to stand up for human rights by standing up to Iran.
This month's gathering of world leaders at the United Nations offers President Obama a critical opportunity to reset America's posture toward Iran's post-June 12 turmoil, and to demonstrate that negotiations over Iran's nuclear program will not come at the Iranian people's expense. With his extraordinary political skills and international popularity, President Obama is uniquely positioned to challenge the global body to make clear, at long last, the civilized world's profound concern with Iran's elections and their bloody aftermath. He should call not only for the release of all those detained in the recent protests, but for an international inquiry of this summer's large-scale human rights abuses, including the use of officially-sanctioned rape, torture and lethal violence.
President Obama entered office promising to pursue a policy of engagement with Iran that would be tough and principled. We are about to find out if he really meant it.
Unfortunately, we already know he didn't mean it. Tough talk to Iran is for benefit of us rubes. When the Iranian people took to the streets, Barack Obama, the quintessential community organizer and rabble rouser, was nowhere to be found. Contrast this with Obama administration dealings democratic regimes, Honduras for instance.
On Monday Manuel Zelaya sneaked back into Tegucigalpa and hid himself in the Brazilian embassy, from which he has been trying to instigate street violence ever since. He has the tacit approval of the Obama administration in this.
It brings up the noticeable difference between Iran and Honduras. Iran is run by a murderous theocracy. When thousands of Iranians took to the streets to peacefully protest a stolen election they were met with violence, murder, torture, rape, and imprisonment. Obama has not been on side of the Iranian people with anything more than a few spoken words, more for the support of his image than their rights.
But let's look to Honduras. It's a functioning democracy in which a tiny leftist minority has taken to the streets in support of violent overthrow. Obama is on the side of those people, the side of the aspiring leftist dictator.
Mr. Zelaya was deposed and deported this summer after he agitated street protests to support a rewrite of the Honduran constitution so he could serve a second term. The constitution strictly prohibits a change in the term-limits provision. On multiple occasions he was warned to desist, and on June 28 the Supreme Court ordered his arrest.
Every major Honduran institution supported the move, even members in Congress of his own political party, the Catholic Church and the country's human rights ombudsman. To avoid violence the Honduran military escorted Mr. Zelaya out of the country. In other words, his removal from office was legal and constitutional, though his ejection from the country gave the false appearance of an old-fashioned Latin American coup.
The U.S. has since come down solidly on the side of—Mr. Zelaya. While it has supported negotiations and called for calm, President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton have both insisted that Honduras must ignore Mr. Zelaya's transgressions and their own legal processes and restore him as president. The U.S. has gone so far as to cut off aid, threaten Honduran assets in the U.S. and pull visas to enter the U.S. from the independent judiciary. The U.S. has even threatened not to recognize presidential elections previously scheduled for November unless Mr. Zelaya is first brought back to power—even though he couldn't run again.
Some time ago President Roberto Micheletti had offered to allow Zelaya's return, pledging that he would not seek re-election in November and asking Zelaya to do the same. But with the weight of the U.S. State Department on his side Zelaya has felt no need to compromise. His supporters are at the gates of the Brazilian embassy with Molotov cocktails.
So far this hasn't worked out so well for Zelaya. He sits alone in the Brazilian embassy.
TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (AP) - Diplomats and activists streamed out of the increasingly isolated Brazilian Embassy in Honduras where ousted President Manuel Zelaya holed up with a shrinking core of supporters and relatives, prompting Brazil to urge the U.N. Security Council to guarantee the compound's safety.
Zelaya's backers ventured out at several points in Honduras' capital to skirmish with police, after hundreds of their colleagues were routed by baton-wielding soldiers from the street in front of the embassy and police roadblocks sealed off the mission building Tuesday. Authorities denied local media reports that three people died in the confrontation.
The entire country was largely shut down, with almost no cars or pedestrians in the streets and few businesses open under a nearly round-the-clock curfew decreed by the interim government that ousted Zelaya in June. It accused Zelaya of sneaking back into the country Monday to create disturbances and disrupt the Nov. 29 election scheduled to pick his successor.
Foreign Minister Carlos Lopez said the government would not try to enter the embassy to arrest Zelaya, but he also said Honduras' interim leaders had no intention of yielding on the central point demanded by the international community: the reinstatement of Zelaya to serve out the remaining four months of his term.
Obama is first and foremost on the side of leftists, but when a lefty dictator is no where to be found his next choice is any other kind of dictator. Dictators can get things done, like spreading the wealth, nationalizing health care and other industries. It's harder to do those things in a democracy. People get in the way. It would be so much easier for Obama to bring about hope and change if he could just have the style of government that he hopes to nurture in Honduras.
