There's a Difference

Phil Jackson, the record setting coach of the Los Angeles Lakers was on the Tonight Show last week and made an interesting remark; it went something like this…that the unrest in Iran was made possible by the current approach by the administration that was elected last November.
What a funny and naïve comment, I thought.
First off, I realize that Mr. Jackson is a Buddhist and although I am not fully aware of their thought patterns regarding world issues I am sure that they have peaceful intentions but I had difficulty seeing the current administration’s ineffectiveness in getting the economy under control as being a bell weather ringing endorsement for their obvious lack of foreign diplomacy, especially in Iran today.
Hello, liberals and the rest of you Bush haters, people are dying in Iran today for what…FREEDOM…Freedom like we have in this country. They are not just marching but they are marching with the full knowledge that their pictures are being taken and that there is a good chance that goon squads will be visiting them and their families some night to exact a judgment on them that we would be horrified at knowing about. But what do I hear from the liberal side…that our President’s silence somehow has a Svengali mystic hold over the event and that our mute president and his administration is leading the way in assisting in any manner to the Iranians striving for freedom.
Listen, what is happening by our, “oops did I offend” foreign policy makers in Washington D.C. today is only adding to the problem, not assisting it.
Now I will be the first to say the Mullahs and the other leaders in Iran today don’t give a hoot about what is said but the man in the street trying to affect a change in government needs to hear the world at this time, that we see them and we support them in their efforts.
Now I have marveled for years how Coach Jackson sits on the bench when things are not going well for his team and he seldom seems upset and is the calmest coach I have seen in ages but that approach does not translate to foreign policy and the need for freedom fighter to “hear and feel” the support of our country at this time.
Sitting on our hands just to placate the Iranian government not only harms the protesters that are literally fighting for their lives but also emboldens the despots that have held power for the past 30 years. Remember these guys…the ones that assaulted our embassy, sovereign American territory back in the 70s and took hostages for 444 days. Remember???
American foreign policy needs to have words associated with action and this administration in their politically correct approach now has a problem in North Korea and Iran and is being seen in the world as a “Knock off” French government of appeasement.
Listen up, there are different views on this subject and I for one have no desire for an expanded war in the region but I do want expanded dialogue that let’s the Iranian people know that we know they are out there and we support their efforts in obtaining their freedom in whatever manner it eventually comes to them.
War is not always the answer but neither is the “Three monkey approach” to foreign diplomacy. I will leave it to the reader to fill in who fits the bill of these rather well know caricatures.
By the way, anybody see or hear from Joe Biden lately? What’s up with him?