June, 20, 2009. “The Daily Dish” (and other sites)
The uprising in Iran is one of the most important and compelling stories of the new millennium. How events unfold in Iran will be crucial to the region, but they will also tell us something about how future resistance against authoritarian regimes can be organized.
The MSM is having difficulty keeping up with events for the some of the same reasons that the Iranian autocrats are finding it difficult to shut down the protests and close off Iran to the world, namely, new technologies. Posted below are links to sites that should be helpful in keeping up-to-date.
The Daily Dish-Andrew Sullivan (the site that is the most comprehensive)
Iran Up-Dates (Video): Live Blogging the Uprising, Huffington Post
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PM, June 20, 2009, President Obama’s statement:
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.
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Obama has been criticized for not saying enough. Wrong! He has played this absolutely correctly. We don’t need to give Iranian autocrats any more “reasons” to blame foreign interference. Obama could not have prevented the violence by taking sides. He could have only weakened the oppostion’s hand. We all know where Obama, the community organizer, stands on this one. There will be time for tough talk.
UP@NIGHT 