President Obama calls on Iran to 'stop all violent and unjust actions'

[jefferson_dem]

Obama calls on Iran to 'stop all violent and unjust actions'

Obama directly addresses the Iranian government for the first time after a day of violence in Iran:

The Iranian government must understand that the world is watching. We mourn each and every innocent life that is lost. We call on the Iranian government to stop all violent and unjust actions against its own people. The universal rights to assembly and free speech must be respected, and the United States stands with all who seek to exercise those rights.

As I said in Cairo, suppressing ideas never succeeds in making them go away. The Iranian people will ultimately judge the actions of their own government. If the Iranian government seeks the respect of the international community, it must respect the dignity of its own people and govern through consent, not coercion.

Martin Luther King once said - “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” I believe that. The international community believes that. And right now, we are bearing witness to the Iranian peoples’ belief in that truth, and we will continue to bear witness.

http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0609/Obama_calls_on_Iran_to_stop_all_violent_and_unjust_actions.html

[C_U_L8R]

1. Cue McCain whining in 5, 4,3, 2....

[beachmom]

2. Amen, Mr. President. nt

[mia]

3. The Miami model, for example...

http://www.benfrank.net/nuke/ftaa112003/Police_Brutality_in_Miami.html

[jenmito]

4. K&R. I bet the Repubs. will take full credit for Obama "finally" speaking out-

taking their advice. :eyes:

[incapsulated]

5. Good

It's fully justified and not meddling.

[Cha]

6. Yeah, the president just can't

say nothing with all this violence in Iran..his words have to be measured and true.

[Phx_Dem]

7. This morning on MSNBC Pat Buchanan called McCain's response "hot headed".

Said it was exactly the wrong thing to do.

Yesterday, I head a foreign policy guy (can't recall his name) who agreed with Obama's tone, said unless the U.S. is prepared to back up the protestors with force, we'd better watch what we say. He went to say that during the Iraqi uprising in 1991, George H.W. Bush called on Iraqis to rise up and overthrow Saddam, he had U.S. planes drop leafets across the country encouraging a revolt. The people followed his advice and revolted in huge numbers including some in the Iraqi Army. Bush then got cold feet and decided it was "getting out of hand," so he backed off. Saddam killed tens of thousands of Shiites while the U.S. watched the horror from recon planes. Jesus.

I googled the story to get more info. Here it is: http://www.alternet.org/world/49864/

[Oregone]

8. Lets lead by example and prosecute our own torture