Wednesday, February 01, 2006

The president's message to Iran in the SOTU

After listing Iran earlier in the SOTU along with Syria, Burma, Zimbabwe, and North Korea as a regime that oppresses individual rights and freedoms, Bush more directly confronts the Iranian regime.

The same is true of Iran, a nation now held hostage by a small clerical elite that is isolating and repressing its people. The regime in that country sponsors terrorists in the Palestinian territories and in Lebanon -- and that must come to an end. (Applause.) The Iranian government is defying the world with its nuclear ambitions, and the nations of the world must not permit the Iranian regime to gain nuclear weapons. (Applause.) America will continue to rally the world to confront these threats.

Tonight, let me speak directly to the citizens of Iran: America respects you, and we respect your country. We respect your right to choose your own future and win your own freedom. And our nation hopes one day to be the closest of friends with a free and democratic Iran. (Applause.)


Applause indeed. Bold words, but we need more action to support the people in Iran who yearn for freedom. As it becomes more obvious Iran's intentions to create nuclear weapons, we need more than months of delays as the UN debates what to do with Iran.

Faster please.

UPDATE: Faster indeed. Looks like Iran wacko in charge Ahmadinejad placed calls to Castro in Cuba, Morales in Bolivia, and Cahvez in Venezuela to enlist world support against the west and the UN should they choose to attempt to sanction Iran.