Back in 1981 when the tyrannical Soviet regime was cracking down on the Polish people, Ronald Reagan publicized a telephone conversation he had with the Pope that contained this line, "Our sympathies are with the people, not the government."
Right now, the Iranian people are protesting on the streets of Iran's capital, Tehran – demanding their freedo m, and yet President Barack Obama remains silent.
On the campaign trail, Obama constantly stressed the need to employ America's soft power, our moral and diplomatic clout, around the globe. If there was ever a time to expend America's reserves of soft power in the pursuit of freedom, it is now.
If our leaders will not stand up to tyranny when it stares us in the face, then we must. While the fight for the future of Iran and peace in the Middle East at large is going on inside Iran, there are things you can do to help the Iranian people.
Click here to read the five ways you can take action to help the Iranian people right now!
Last Friday when the Iranian people went to the polls to elect a new president, the election was widely seen as a choice between the radical, holocaust-denying incumbent, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the reform-minded challenger Mir Hossein Mousavi. The election was thought to be closely contested, and opinion polls leading up to election day showed Mousavi leading the vote.
So when the results were announced, mere hours after the polls closed on Friday, showing Ahmadinejad with an unbelievable two-to-one lead over Mousavi, even winning overwhelming in Mousavi’s hometown, people cried fraud.
Over the weekend, protesters took to the streets of Tehran and other cities in Iran demonstrating in the largest protests since the 1979 Iranian Revolution.
As you read this email Iranian students are risking their lives to protest in the streets, to spread their message via social networking sites like Twitter -- while the mullahs and Revolutionary Guard watch and wait, trying to decide whether to mow them down, make them disappear, or give in to their demands.
Meanwhile, the leader of the free world is AWOL. No threats of sanctions. No standing up for the people in the streets. No refusal to recognize the sham government that won via fraud. But Americans can do better. We must.
An oppressed people are yearning to breathe free and you can he lp them in their struggle: http://collegerepublicans.org/
Now is the opportunity to stand with the Iranian freedom fighters.
Sincerely,
Zach Howell
National Chairman
College Republicans
Unfortunately, Zach has not contextualized this event at all. The recent elections were complete BS in Iran, however their government is treading very lightly and handling the situation very well in my opinion. There have been less than 20 casualities throughout these protests. Barack has no grounds to claim gross human rights violations, only the grounds to claim thrown elections (which happen all over the place all the time). If he strongly voiced opposition, he would be compromising the ability of Iranians to enact grassroots, indigenous, meaningful change thorugh their protests. The free world IS with Iran, just go on twitter.
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