Todd Carney
As President, Barack Obama was good at apologizing…for America. But Obama would rarely own up to his mistakes. Recently, Obama admitted fault, for once, concerning his administration’s response to a pro-democracy movement in Iran early in his presidency. In a soft-ball interview with his former staffers on the “Pod Save America” podcast Obama claimed that he and his staff had debated whether to do more to support Iran’s pro-democracy movement. Obama went on to say that the administration ultimately did not back the movement further because they did not want the demonstrators to seem like “tools of the West”. Obama concluded by saying he considers his response a mistake. This self-reflection has won Obama praise. However, Obama’s apology is meaningless because it comes a decade late and does nothing to undo the damage his initial response caused.
The Middle East was an early focus of Obama’s administration. Obama gave a famous speech in Egypt about America’s relationship with the Muslim world. At the time, the speech received a lot of praise. Many hoped that it could lead to pro-democracy movements in the region, without the US needing to invade.
A little over a week later, there was a democratic uprising in Iran in response to claims that Iran’s president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, had rigged the nation’s presidential election to win another term. Ahmadinejad responded to the protests with violence and arrests, the same kind of human rights abuses that Iran is committing today. It is possible that some of the demonstrators protested because they were inspired by Obama’s speech.
But Obama contradicted his Egypt speech’s message of human rights and democracy when he refused to do anything on Iran. Obama claimed that he did not want the world to see the US as “meddling”, given the US’s history in Iran. Obama did note he had “concern” about the violence, and promised "tough diplomacy". It is unclear what Obama meant by “tough diplomacy”, whatever it was, it did not result in any real action.
Some could understand Obama’s reluctance to get tangled in another conflict in the Middle East, given that the US already had two costly wars there at the time. The US could have supported the protesters through other means. Obama even could have galvanized an international response that was particularly missing in Iraq. Obama’s use of the word “meddling” to dismiss any calls to get involved was particularly harsh and helped create a stigma around future involvement.
Obama failed his purported goals in the Middle East through a myriad of ways. Ahmadinejad demonized the West, including the US, anyways. Ahmadinejad also used his propaganda resources to make the protests seem like America’s fault. Moreover, by the end of Obama’s administration, there was even more unrest in the Middle East, in Syria, Yemen, and Saudi Arabia. The US also increased its involvement in those nations, and ones in the periphery of the Middle East, such as Libya, Pakistan, and Somalia.
Since Obama’s “meddling” comments, Iran has gone on to support atrocities in Syria, and now Ukraine. Had Obama chosen differently in 2009, he would have saved countless lives.
As a former president, Obama has taken an active role in US policy. Obama chose to stay in DC after he left office, and was unrelenting in his criticism of his successor, Donald Trump. Much like former President Bill Clinton, Obama established a foundation to wield influence.
With this in mind, Obama’s apology likely did not have to do with his sincere regret, instead now that he no longer has real responsibility, it is easier for him to make popular statements that make him seem benevolent and always “on the side of democracy”. Like much of the Washington DC elite, Obama has been outspoken in his support for Ukraine. Again, Obama claimed he regrets not doing more when Putin annexed Crimea, yet he waived off his lack of a response to “different circumstances” when he was president.
Through book releases, speeches, and multi-million dollar podcasts, Obama is cultivating his image as carefully as when he was president. Obama again is finding media sources to help him here, this time with people he employed. Americans should refuse to buy Obama’s rewrite of history.
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