Obama And The Iranians, A Squandered Opportunity?

February 2, 2009 by Jonathan Movroydis | Filed Under Barack Obama, International Affairs, Iran, Islam and the West 

Abe Greenwald at The  Contentions blog explains how the human rights movement in Iran is enamored with President Obama, something that bodes very well for American foreign policy. What an opportunity!  But Greenwald contends that Obama’s reachout effort on Al-Aribiyah television wasn’t extended to them, but rather those who would “unclench their fists:”

I fear Iranian human rights activists are the next group to become disenchanted with Barack Obama. If they have not yet heard (and given Iranian media, they might not have), Obama is not interested in ideology: he’s interested in expedience (um, I mean, uh, smart power). And the heartbreaking difference between the two is best captured in these words, written by a group of Iranian human rights activists to President Obama: “You ordered the Guantanamo prison to be shut down, in our land we have many Guantanamos in Evin, Rajayi Shahr…where students, women, workers, and the journalists of our country are being held.” But what that group has yet grasp is that Obama didn’t campaign on closing down Evin prison.

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