The Wonk Room’s Matt Duss discusses the Iranian protests on MSNBC.
The Wonk Room’s Matt Duss discusses the Iranian protests on MSNBC.
This afternoon, the Wonk Room’s Matt Duss appeared on MSNBC to discuss the ongoing Iranian protests over last week’s disputed presidential elections. He praised President Obama for taking the U.S. “out of this equation” and thus refusing to give the hardliners in Iran an “excuse” to crack down further on the protesters:
DUSS: I think the lesson to be learned is the United States’ ability to intervene and change these outcomes is rather limited. As Americans, we like to believe that our ability to move, to promote democracy and to move events in the world at our will is a lot bigger than it actually is. … Right now President Obama’s treatment of the demonstrations going on in Iran is pretty near perfect. He has taken the United States to the extent possible out of this equation, he, the United States, and our role in the Middle East is not — he’s not going to give that to the hard liners as an excuse for an even greater crackdown.
Watch it:
Transcript:
SHUSTER: When you remember the pictures of the thousands of Chinese who were in Tiananmen Square, and then you match it up with the thousands, the hundreds of thousands…who are now demonstrating in Iran, are there lessons learned in terms of the United States’ role in all this?
DUSS: I think the lesson to be learned is the United States’ ability to intervene and change these outcomes is rather limited. As Americans, we like to believe that our ability to move, to promote democracy and to move events in the world at our will is a lot bigger than it actually is. I think there’s arguments that the United States could have spoken out a bit more strongly around Tiananmen. However, right now President Obama’s treatment of the demonstrations going on in Iran is pretty near perfect. He has taken the United States to the extent possible out of this equation, he, the United States, and our role in the Middle East is not — he’s not going to give that to the hard liners as an excuse for an even greater crackdown.
SHUSTER: Does there come a point though at which perhaps the Obama administration ought to change? In other words, while the United States tries to stay out of it, tries not to be a distraction, should there come a point, or can you envision a set of circumstance where it would be incumbent upon president obama to be more aggressive, at least in the rhetoric?
DUSS: I can imagine if the crackdown got to be much more severe than we’re seeing, I can imagine the president’s rhetoric would probably ramp up a little bit to increase his calls for respect for human rights and respect for the Iranian people’s voices to be heard. But as we’re seeing from these pictures that you’re showing, their voices are being heard right now on the streets of Iran, and that’s very, very significant.
SHUSTER: What are some of the crucial things we should be looking for as the story develops in the days ahead?
DUSS: We should look to see if police are following orders to crack down, if a crackdown is called upon. That picture that I heard that you showed of the man standing in front of the tank — that’s a very important picture in a number of ways because the tank commander stopped his tank. Now as you said, that crackdown in China was very severe, but the key thing here is whether the instruments of state repression, the militias, the IRGC, but most importantly the police, who are the rank and file, they’re not necessarily the most ideological parts of the system — if they choose to cross over, that’s something that could be very significant.
SHUSTER: One of the reasons of course is that the Chinese, at least some of the initial security forces did not attack and why the tanks stopped is because they were from Beijing and so the Chinese called out troops who were not from that city so they would not be fighting against essentially their neighbors and families. Do you see any of that being a potential part of what may be going on in Tehran, in other words, that the security forces that may be asked to essentially crack down may know some of these people as their neighbors or friends?
DUSS: Well there was a picture that I saw a couple of days ago that was very moving. It was a policeman who was being beaten up by protesters and one of the protesters covered him with his body and stopped the other protesters from beating him up, just saying, Listen, he is an Iranian, we are together in this. Let’s not fight amongst ourselves. I don’t know if that will be happening more. I should hope that it might. But I think the key thing to recognize is the United States’ ability to affect the outcome on the ground in Iran is limited.
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I agree!
President Obama is acting presidential.
teabaggers take note.
June 16th, 2009 at 6:14 pmWhat really impresses me is the pictures I’ve been seeing of protestors protecting and removing cops and right-wing militia members from the crowds. They may get beat for a little while, but cooler heads seem to be regularly taking control and getting them out of harm’s way. I doubt if the other side would do the same if the situation were reversed.
June 16th, 2009 at 6:15 pmWow! The US is so worried about Democracy… Is the US going to accept that Hamas as a legitimate democratically government, or is this fuss about Iran is there just because it is Iran? What I remember of US’s democracy in my country was 25 years of military dictatorship (Made in USA). I remember democratic leaders in exile because of CIA’s torture and prosecution. All financed by the US of A…
June 16th, 2009 at 6:21 pmWhat about the 2002 failed attempt coup in Venezuela? It had US finger prints all over it! Fancy that… to oust a democratic elected president… the US!
And now they are upset because Iran is not playing fair… Boohoo!
Our President is taking just the right tone – concern for the safety of the Iranian people, and a stated hope that Iran sorts out the issues on their own. He also indicated that it would inappropriate for the U.S. to get involved in any way, realizing that we will need to deal with whomever wins.
Great to have a thoughtful adult back in charge.
PEACE
June 16th, 2009 at 6:37 pmI’m also hearing that a lot of the thugs being brought in to bust up marches are Hezbollah from Lebanon. We could be looking at a future wedge between the Iranian people and Hezbollah, which could be good for the Israeli people. Provided it’s handled delicately.
Speaking of which, Pat Buchanan says Obama is playing this just perfectly. Apparently they didn’t ask him about “preferring the old racism.”
June 16th, 2009 at 6:55 pmBut when will the liberal media let JohnM or American Patriot on TV to soil themselves and shriek about Obama’s missing birth certificate? SUCH BIAS.
June 16th, 2009 at 6:56 pmSlippery schuster the proven liar?
June 16th, 2009 at 7:07 pmI’s so happy to see that MSNBC is allowing more and more intelligent, articulate members of TP get some air time!
It’s ABOUT TIME the logic of Progressive minds gets exposed to the American people!!!
June 16th, 2009 at 7:07 pmChyron HR Says:
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But when will the liberal media let JohnM or American Patriot on TV to soil themselves and shriek about Obama’s missing birth certificate? SUCH BIAS.
I have never questioned Obama’s birth certificate. Yet another “progressive” that cannot get their facts straight.
June 16th, 2009 at 7:30 pmIt’s so cool seeing TP staff on the teevee machine. :-)
Well done, Matt!
June 16th, 2009 at 7:37 pmGood on ya Matt!
June 16th, 2009 at 8:17 pmWhatsamatta AP?
June 16th, 2009 at 8:18 pmNow now JohnM, dont be painting like that.
June 16th, 2009 at 8:19 pmI have never questioned Obama’s birth certificate.
Please note that JohnM in no way denied that he’s incontinent.
June 16th, 2009 at 8:20 pmI was reading some stuff from Philip Giraldi and I think he is right, involvement in other countries may produce some short term results but in the long term these countries we have intervened in are worse off than they were five years ago.
Scowcroft, for one, warned about destabilizing the middle east and thats what happened in the last eight years.
We shouldnt be acting like the Roman Empire, or any empire, exceptional or not, for that matter.
June 16th, 2009 at 8:28 pmHey, CAP – that “bookshelf” background is starting to look kinda familiar…
.
Chyron HR Says:
Please note that JohnM in no way denied that he’s incontinent.
He has also not proven that he was not involved in marital relations with certain sheep.
June 16th, 2009 at 8:32 pm2 parrots peeing in a pod….yawn.
June 16th, 2009 at 8:36 pmAmPat
The proven MORON. My GOD you are stupid. You do understand that you are staggeringly ignorant and pathetic dont you AP?
June 16th, 2009 at 8:40 pmJohn Edwards based his Presidential run on the “Two Americas” theme, arguing that there was one America for the rich and another America for the poor. After witnessing the failure of the “Two Americas” platform, Barack Obama has now initiated his “Two Iran’s” platform. One Iran poses no threat to us, while the other is a “grave” threat.
http://constitutionallyright.com/2008/05/20/obama-and-the-two-irans/
June 16th, 2009 at 8:42 pmAmPat. You ignorant Punkass troll. Dont you ever just get embarassed at how stupid and pathetic you are?
June 16th, 2009 at 8:46 pmWOO HOO!!!
RACHEL MADDOW giving former TP staffer NICO PITNEY a segment about his live blogging these protests at huffpo!
GOOD ON YA, NICO!
June 16th, 2009 at 9:31 pmI wore green to work today. This story should be getting a lot more coverage; I salute the job being done at HuffPo.
June 16th, 2009 at 10:13 pmkaty Says:
RACHEL MADDOW giving former TP staffer NICO PITNEY a segment about his live blogging these protests at huffpo!
Yeah, his liveblog has been the place to go to stay updated on the situation in Iran. None of the cable news channels even remotely come close to having as much info as fast. I’d say his updating post is to this situation much as CNN was to Gulf War I.
Also good on Twitter for rescheduling their planned downtime to midnight Tehran instead of midnight New York.
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barrelhse Says:
I wore green to work today. This story should be getting a lot more coverage; I salute the job being done at HuffPo.
Gotta go find if I have some green clothes. For some reason, these events remind me of this.
June 17th, 2009 at 2:39 am