Roman Around

As innocents lay murdered in the streets of Tehran at the hands of murderous government thugs, the President of the United States, Barack Obama, chose to be silent on the matter for a week. The leader of the most powerful nation on earth decided to keep quiet while citizens of Iran – denied of even the most basic human rights – were butchered by their government.

The time just wasn’t right.

It just wasn’t his place to meddle, impose, or interject anything that may have potentially upset the despots at the top.

Condemnations mean nothing, his supporters cried. President Obama handled everything just as he should have, the sycophants explained. For Obama to speak out against what was happening in Iran would have served no real purpose, they said.

“Sheer Brilliance!” they exclaimed, drooling all over themselves, thankful for every moment George W. Bush was not calling the shots.

When the President finally addressed the matter, under mounting pressure to emerge from his ice cream cone and do something remotely presidential, he spoke as a man inconvenienced, perhaps perturbed at ostensibly being forced to act as such outside of his comfort zone – away from warm bosom of expanding the debt, nationalizing health care and constructing his legacy.

A man works from sun to sun, but a Messiah’s work is never done.

After a too-little, too-late slice of weakness and afterthought, the Iranian President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, shockingly accused our President of meddling in their affairs.

Who’d have thought?

But President Obama has apparently learned his lesson.

He has decided that silence just isn’t an option anymore when one is the leader of a nation built on fat-catism, bigotry, slavery, corruption and imperialism. Thus, Bam has spoken out – with a kind of strength rarely seen since he asked if he could be allowed to finish his damn waffle on the campaign trail last year – against the coup in Honduras. (I use the word “coup” because it’s the one being used by the press at this time. It’s a debatable point).

In fact, the removal of the dictator, Manuel Zelaya – a man enthusiastically supported by Venezuelan leader and all-around fun-loving hooligan, Hugo Chavez – has prompted the President to denounce the coup as illegal.

Arshad Mohammed and David Alexander from Reuters write:

U.S. President Barack Obama said on Monday the coup that ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya was illegal and would set a “terrible precedent” of transition by military force unless it was reversed.

“We believe that the coup was not legal and that President Zelaya remains the president of Honduras, the democratically elected president there,” Obama told reporters after an Oval Office meeting with Colombian President Alvaro Uribe.

Zelaya, in office since 2006, was overthrown in a dawn coup on Sunday after he angered the judiciary, Congress and the army by seeking constitutional changes that would allow presidents to seek re-election beyond a four-year term.

The Honduran Congress named an interim president, Roberto Micheletti, and the country’s Supreme Court said it had ordered the army to remove Zelaya.

The European Union and a string of foreign governments have voiced support for Zelaya, who was snatched by troops from his residence and whisked away by plane to Costa Rica in his pajamas.

Obama said he would work with the Organization of American States and other international institutions to restore Zelaya to power and “see if we can resolve this in a peaceful way.”

Thus, the President – quicker than a fly on a picnic spare rib – opened his mouth and unequivocally condemned the action, siding with the likes of Hugo Chavez and Fidel Castro.

Chavez, of course, has accused the United States of having some sort of hand in the Honduras “coup.”

Perhaps Chavez isn’t quite as savvy as many take him for – or maybe he has just grown accustomed to having an American right-wing, war-thirsty imperialist like George W. Bush at the helm.

Chavez will soon understand that President Obama is a bonafide, card-carrying leftist.

Silly Hugo.

The idea that Obama would have anything to do with toppling any of the left-heavy governments of Latin America is almost as preposterous as expecting anything other than an apology from Obama for America’s mere existence, which understandably led Chavez to come to such a conclusion.

Said Chavez: “They will have to get to the bottom of how much of a hand the CIA and other imperial bodies had in this.”

I can almost hear Obama saying, “Damn, that guy is good. Someone get the CIA on the horn!”

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Update – June 30, 2009 12:26 PM

Talk show host Dennis Prager makes a very important point on his radio program today – and helps support my inclination that what happened in Hondouras really wasn’t a coup.

Zelaya was removed from power by decree of his nation’s Supreme Court for Constitutional violations. He was replaced by a member of his own party - hardly what one would consider a coup.

The military did not take over the country.

Thank goodness Obama had the gumption to declare something that actually was legal an illegal act.

Such courage.

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