Obama has new Iran response

Yesterday, Obama updated his response to 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.

This is what he should have said the first time.  Also, the right to assembly and free speech might be universial rights in the United States, but they are not necessarily rights in other countries.  Take China as an example.  China censors everything like crazy but the United States doesn’t lecture them.  Why is it that we only respond when there is a problem?  Because it’s politically advantageous.

So previously, Obama did not want the United States to appear as meddling.  So what are we doing now?  From the Iran Government perspective, this is now meddling.  Once again, Obama gets schooled in International Politics.