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Kristol: Obama Must Do More Than Watch Iran

It's not enough to just 'bear witness'

By Kevin Spak, Newser Staff

Posted Jul 4, 2009 7:51 PM CDT

(Newser) – What does Barack Obama intend to do to help the Iranian people? Watch them, mostly, writes William Kristol in the Weekly Standard. In a statement last week, Obama began by saying, “The Iranian government must understand that the world is watching.” He ended by promising to “continue to bear witness.” Does he really think Tehran cares that the world is watching? The regime only cared “what, if anything, the world would do.”

John F. Kennedy once said that the US would “bear any burden, meet any hardship … in order to assure the survival and success of liberty.” That’s a far cry from just keeping an eye on things. Obama’s UN ambassador even refused to side with Mousavi, saying Iran should “work it out internally.” Obama will, well, watch. Because “acting on behalf of justice—as opposed to talking about it—is hard.”

[Images (4)]

[Quotes (1)]

In this image issued by the semi-official Iranian Students News Agency, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, attends a meeting in his office in Tehran, Thursday June, 25, 2009. (AP Photo/ISNA, Arash Khamushi)

U.S. President Barack Obama, left, and French President Nicolas Sarkozy shake hands as they participate in a bilateral meeting at the Prefecture in Caen, France Saturday, June 6, 2009. (AP Photo/Stephane de Sakutin, pool)

President Barack Obama is interviewed by The Associated Press, Thursday, July 2, 2009, in the West Wing of the White House in Washington. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

President Obama answers questions during a discussion on health care July 1. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

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Obama seems to think that there is some force in the admonition that the world is watching; but history plentifully demonstrates that when the world is watching, all the world does is watch. - Leon Wieseltier, Literary Editor of the
New Republic

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Kristol: Obama Must Do More Than Watch Iran