In his remarks at the United States Military Academy at West Point on May 28, 2014, President Barack Obama elucidated at this commencement ceremony: “America’s support for democracy and human rights goes beyond idealism; it is a matter of national security. Democracies are our closest friends and are far less likely to go to war… Respect for human rights is an antidote to instability and the grievances that fuel violence and terror.”
Then we all know by now that Islamic State that is consuming much treasure and threatening civilians, be it Christians or Muslim Yezidis, flourished in Syria as the dictator there, with the assistance of its brethrens the mullahs of Iran, is slaughtering its people.
Now the Syrian dictator crossed President Obama’s self-drawn redline by using chemical weapons against its citizens, but this redline was watered down and the Bashar al-Assad deceptively agreed to ship all his chemical weapons out of the country. The international community did nothing as he replaced chemical weapons with chlorine to suffocate Syrians. Last week Reuters reported, “International inspectors have found traces of sarin and VX nerve agent at a military research site in Syria that had not been declared to the global chemical weapons watchdog”.
Just the other day, Jennifer Rubin from Washington Post wrote: “We already know the Iranians have violated international agreements and resolutions for decades. And even during the Joint Plan of Action, contrary to the Obama administration’s assertions, they have not fulfilled their obligations. When Iran was caught testing an advanced centrifuge barred by the JPOA, the administration wrote it off as a low-level employee’s doing, probably a mistake. British sources recently provided the United Nations with evidence Iran was attempting to buy nuclear technology from banned companies. The White House brushed this off.”
And of course we had the disclosure of Lavizan-3 nuclear site on February 24 by the Iranian opposition NCRI that had formerly blew the whistle on Iran’s nuclear program in 2002. And what was the reaction of Obama administration? Well, during the State Department daily press briefing on February 26 we can read: “MS. PSAKI: That we’d look into the reports and – but obviously, we don’t have any information to suggest that the conclusions in the reports are accurate.” The revelation was never looked into.
Turning a blind eye at these disclosures, together with ignoring the deplorable Iranian regime’s human rights is a betrayal of President Obama’s own statements “Democracies are our closest friends… Respect for human rights is an antidote to… violence and terror” that threaten the U.S. national security. No wonder there is so much upheaval in the U.S. Congress concerning the Iran nuclear deal with a regime that is suppressing not only its own citizens, but peoples in Syria, Iraq, Yemen…
It is certainly one thing to make a statement and another to follow through on your words.
