Clinton Denies Calling for Regime Change in Iran
This change reflects the triumph of Secretary Clinton and Vice President Biden in the summer of 2009, assisted by pressure from the Republicans. The two pressured President Obama to stop being silent as the Green Revolution grew. President Obama did not hold a single high-level conference call or meeting to discuss a response to the protests as they reached their height. He belatedly responded with a strong statement referencing the videotaped death of Neda Soltan, and Clinton claimed that “behind the scenes, we were doing a lot” to help the protestors. Now, advocates of supporting the opposition appear to have won the debate, with the remaining argument focusing on the limits of that support.
Following Ahmadinejad’s ridiculous accusations of 9/11 being an inside job, President Obama was quick to add that “it stands in contrast with the response of the Iranian people when 9/11 happened, when there were candlelight vigils.” He then went to BBC’s Persian service to directly address the people, saying that when they face their hardships because of international sanctions, “they have to look at the management of their government, both in terms of the economic management but also in terms of them deciding that it’s a higher priority to pursue a covert nuclear program than it is to make sure that their people have opportunity.” An administration official said they will deliver his interview to the Iranian people through the Internet.
More and more, we’re seeing administration officials readily addressing the concerns of the Iranian people without being prodded. President Obama appears to have finally understood that the internal opposition is the most painful pressure point to press on the regime. The administration appears to be gently egging on regime change in its own restricted way, as that would rid them of a major headache, but that is not the objective of the policy. The administration is still not ready to ditch its goal of making the regime cave to a negotiated settlement, but rather sees limited support for the people as a means to that end.
This is encouraging but it definitely doesn’t go far enough. There isn’t a consistent campaign to make political prisoners famous, or to materially aid the opposition with the non-violent materials they need, or to establish a strike fund, or any other substantive moves, but it’s far better than the U.S. stance last year. And unlike the 2008 presidential campaign, this time around Obama may be forced by his aspiring Republican opponents to clearly declare whose side he is on (as the Iranian protestors have asked him to do) and embrace or reject a policy comprehensively supporting the opposition.
Long-shot potential Republican presidential candidate John Bolton addressed a rally of Iranians in New York City protesting Ahmadinejad on September 23. He and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani called on the Obama administration to remove the Mujahideen-e-Khalq from the State Department’s list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations.
The debate over the MEK’s legitimacy and viability as an Iranian opposition group has divided proponents of regime change (I wrote an article laying out each side’s arguments here), but putting that debate aside, the probability is growing that whoever the Republican candidate is will make supporting the opposition the centerpiece of his Iran policy. Newt Gingrich has bluntly called for a policy of regime change, as has Rick Santorum, both likely presidential candidates.
The debate has moved from whether to support the Iranian opposition to what’s the best way of doing so. And that debate sends chills up the spines of the regime.
WELL, IT’S ABOUT TIME!!! Where were these idiots when Iranian people were protesting in the streets and being killed by the dozens, possibly thousands, by the Revolutionary Guard? We have lost over a year, ONE YEAR, trying to “negotiate” with a bunch of insane religious fanatics, rather than try to overthrow the current regime through the use of covert operations and destabilizing the regime by supporting any and all political groups that want to overthrow the regime.
This just shows you how incredibly stupid and naive Obama is when it comes to foreign policy. If we had instituted a full-court press against the regime right after last year’s elections, the regime could have collapsed by now. But no, Obama for some strange reason didn’t want it to look like we were aiding the people who were ASKING for our help in overthrowing the current government. Now we have an even stronger dictatorship in Tehran that has supressed most of the opposition through sheer terror and murder. Great. Nice job, Mr. Presient. Just shows you what terrible results you get when you elect a person with absolutely NO executive or real-world experience in ANYTHING. How’s that “Hope and Change” working for you now? November can’t come soon enough.
A slippery slope indeed. Though our means of ‘addressing’ Iran with kid gloves for so long has had these inevitable consequences. ‘Sanctions’ has been our and our allies in the EU’s overwhelming response. Sanctions?
Though dialogue with a hellbent regime as that of Khameini is delicate in nature as well.
Expectedly though disappointing from a leadership standpoint, Clinton WILL be the cog in this administration to address Iran and its strained relationship with, well everyone but Russia.
Though to get an accord with our allies in a unifying effort remains to be seen.
Hillary can get a little confused.
Like when she was trying to make a case for greater foreign policy experience than Obama and claimed to have landed under sniper fire in Tuzla (Bosnia)in 1996, a story she elaborated on several speaking occasions.
When, in fact, the landing was uneventful and she and her daughter were greeted by a little girl with flowers.
Why, you’d think she was Richard Blumenthal (running for senator from Conn.) who used the phrase “when I served in Vietnam” over many years’ time when it turns out he’d never set foot in the place. Or Joe Biden who claimed to have landed in a helicopter under fire in Iraq.
Hillary was also confused when she stated that claims about her philandering husband amounted to a “vast right wing conspiracy” and, of course, on the disposition of those Rose law firm billing records.
Point being, why do we put up with these people ?
And who can forget the bell-ringer: Hillary’s surprise “discovery” of “missing” Rose law firm billing records–under her own bed–two years after the court had subpoenaed those documents?
I still remember when Hilary’s campaign for the nomination in 2008 broadcast an ad implying that she was a far more responsible choice because she had already been there when the phone in the White House had rung in the middle of the night. While that was presumably true, what the ad DIDN’T say was that she was NOT the President at the time but was only the woman who (sometimes) slept with him. Even if she was allowed into the White House situation room to discuss options during those events, she was not in the position of having to make the decisions and, at best, was only one of several voices influencing the discussion. Yet the commercial had the gall to imply that SHE was actually making the decisions on how to resolve those crises.
Too bad Clinton and Obama weren’t as solicitous of the interests and will of the Honduran people (and their constitution), when said people resisted an attempted Chavista coup by a rogue president.
Why it would seem necessary to report the words of such a dysfunctional person, frankly, is beyond me. Like her weather-vane husband, the truth stands only as an impediment to aspirations and reality an inconvenience.
For her to hold any public office is turn the suroundings into a sewer.
At an earlier time she would not be suffered to live so long.
Time to take out all the garbage and skip the soap opera.
Iranian people WANT regime change NOW!!!
Can you get it in your head now Mrs Clinton?!!!! I’m not even addressing this to Obama the appeaser!
Stop playing the game of mouse and cat with a murderous regime!
It’s becoming really sickening!!!
.. Ms. Clinton was also just a wee bit mistaken when she said,”I helped to bring peace to Northern Ireland,”
she did attend a nice ladies tea party tho
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/1581150/Nobel-winner-Hillary-Clintons-silly-Irish-peace-claims.html
I am agree totally with Shiraz…. people of IRAN WANT THE MULLAHS TO BE OVERTHROWN…WE DON’T WANT BRUTAL AND DICTATOR REGIME OF IRAN ANY MORE …. THIS IS THE VOICE OF IRANIAN PLEASE HEAR US AND STOP THESE APPEASERS….
I wonder if the MSM will ever concede that Clinton, Holder, Obama and Napolitano don’t have any “gravitas”, which was their favorite word to describe what Ed Koch was lacking when he ran against Mario Cuomo. (Or was it when G.W. ran against the Gorster?)
Didn’t I read a few days ago that Clinton actually sent a “Happy Birthday” greeting to the President of Iraq?
http://www.thebicycling.com/bicycle/mind-blowing-oxford-circus.html