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Caution wise with Iran atwitter

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: June 18, 2009

Mass protests against what appears to be a rigged election are expected to broaden today in Iran and beyond, yet President Barack Obama has not egged on the protest. His critics are calling him weak and indecisive.

They may be right about him, but they're wrong that he should pound the table and make aggressive noises. Saying too little is much smarter at this point than saying too much and more helpful to the forces of freedom inside the repressed nation.

If Iranians are going to get a better government, they're going to have to demand it themselves. Sustained public protests will require even the repressive clerics who run Iran to make concessions, perhaps a limited recount or even a runoff election. They'll have nothing to fear if President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is as wildly popular as they say the vote indicated.

The United States may be watching quietly, but that's not the same as doing nothing. Notice how many protesters are holding up signs written in English. Notice how U.S. newspapers are encouraging Iranians to send in pictures and first-person accounts of what's happening.

Iranian authorities are trying to squelch this openness with only limited success. Pictures from cell phones are being posted on Facebook and other networking sites. Twitter and blogs are telling the story worldwide that Ahmadinejad wants to bury.

The world has seen video of students hit by gunfire and of thousands of protesters demanding to know, "Where is my vote?"

The U.S. State Department even asked Twitter to delay a planned upgrade so service to Iran wouldn't be interrupted during the daytime protests.

Honest tweets from the street are worth more than posturing in Washington.

Sen. John McCain has called on Obama to denounce the election. That would be easy to do and would be well received in the United States. But in Iran, it could be misinterpreted as denouncing any democracy that produces an outcome we don't like.

It could also give Ahmadinejad an opening to label the resistance as U.S.-backed and unpatriotic. France can condemn the phony count without causing a similar reaction. France has not occupied Iraq, Iran's western neighbor, nor did France drive the ruthless Taliban out of eastern neighbor Afghanistan.

In nearby Pakistan, where dangerous radicals are trying to overthrow the government that has been generally supportive of U.S. anti-terrorist policy, U.S. support must be given quietly and behind the scenes to avoid building sympathy for any insurgency.

Clearly Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's religious leader, is no Obama fan. In March he asked Obama, "Have you released Iranian assets? Have you lifted oppressive sanctions? ... Have you given up your unconditional support of the Zionist regime? Even the language remains unchanged."

No matter what Obama demands of him, Khameni won't listen.

But there is much American can do and is doing.

The Internet is proving to be a powerful tool that gives ordinary people extraordinary power.

It may not be enough this time, but some day it will be.

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