It seems that President Obama has difficulty knowing when to “meddle” in the domestic affairs of both friends and enemies. As a result, he has been badly wrong twice lately in ways that will not be helpful to our interests or to the people of the particular countries. In Iran, he demurred for most of a week while dissenters and petitioners for democracy converted what began as simply an election dispute into a potential overthrow of a dangerous totalitarian regime and then watched silently while the revolutionaries were being crushed, so as not to be accused of “meddling”. Finally he rebuked the regime for its repressive response, but probably too late with too little encouragement or tangible support for the leadership of the opposition in the streets, and a huge opportunity for regime change has been squandered. Apparently, he favors “stability” over freedom, a preference that is counter to the American ideal and a principle on which we cannot be neutral.
On the other hand, in Honduras, he was quick to condemn the legitimate authority of the Supreme Court and the Congress in their wresting control of the government from the President, who had clearly violated the country’s constitution and an order by the Court. In the process, he joined those democratic paragons Hugo Chavez, the Castro brothers, the Organization of American States, and the United Nations in extolling the virtues of defending a democratically-elected official! Our President obviously has a real problem determining in which cases the real perversion of the democratic rule of law is taking place, who our friends should be, and which side to join.
