Yesterday we found out that Obama is going to be removing our missile defense shields in eastern Europe, with a rather confusing message about Iran. Apparently, they’re a serious threat, but we need to get rid of the missile defense shields because they piss Russia off, and Russia is going to help calm down Iran, even though Russia is against further sanctions against Iran.

Yeah, that makes perfect sense…

Anyway, while Obama is blithely ignoring Iran and being far too trusting towards Russia, Iran continues to burn. The stolen election earlier this year, in which Ahmedinejad was made president, has had disastrous consequences. And while it’s been easy to forget about Iran, the situation there is still volatile. The opposition is still fighting — and still dying — and hardliners even attacked former Iranian president Mohammad Khatami, who was protesting alongside Mousavi supporters.

Supporters of the opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi fought running battles with riot police and hardliners on the streets of Tehran today as tens of thousands joined the first protests against President Ahmadinejad for two months.

The demonstrators defied warnings of a “decisive” crackdown from the elite Revolutionary Guard to mount the protest during the annual al-Quds rally, a mass display of solidarity with the Palestinians that is one of the set pieces of the Islamic regime.

Mr Mousavi himself was forced to abandon his own plans to join in the rally after an angry mob shouting “Death to the hypocrite Mousavi” attacked his car.

Another leading reformist, the former president Mohammad Khatami, was also roughed up on the streets of Tehran and had to leave after his robe was ripped and his turban fell to the ground.

… Riot police, armed with batons, beat protesters who were pelting them with stones in the central Haft-e Tir Square. They also fired tear gas to disperse the demonstrators who chanted: “Torture and rape are not effective any more.”

The demonstrators were referring to opposition allegations of abuses against some of the more than 4,000 activists and reformist politicians detained during the post-election disturbances.

The Times has been given access to more than 500 pages of documentary evidence suggesting that the regime is using systematic killing and torture to try to break the opposition’s resolve since the June 12 vote.

I don’t doubt it. These people were fighting for their freedom, and they continue to. When they tried to peacefully protest a rigged election, they were met with violence, torture, arrests, and murder by Ahmedinejad’s regime. It wasn’t too long ago that Iran completely erupted into chaos. In June, another former Iranian president, Rafsanjani, saw his family arrested because he dared side with the opposition. Police used brutal force against protestors, such as tear gas and burning agents. Injured Iranians were met at hospitals by police, where they would be arrested and likely tortured. Iranians against Ahmedinejad couldn’t use the internet, because internet usage was being used to track down the protestors and arrest or kill them. The Basij was breaking into people’s homes and committing horrendous home invasions. And people like poor Neda were being shot in the street, simply for being at a protest.

And the situation has not settled. Try as they might, the Revolutionary Guard has not been able to break the spirits of the freedom fighters. Despite everything they’ve lost, and everything they’re risking, they haven’t given up. I hope they don’t. I hope they keep fighting. Honestly, my heart just breaks for these people. Our country, the strongest in the world, will not help them. And if we don’t, who will? They won’t be able to overturn Ahmedinejad’s regime on their own. But, God bless them, they keep fighting, no matter how hopeless it seems. It makes me so proud, and yet extremely sad at the same time. They’re begging us to save them, and Obama just looks the other way. I wish we didn’t have such a spineless coward for a president who will do nothing to help these people who are literally risking their lives simply to be free, something we take so for granted here in the United States.

Clearly, Obama still hasn’t learned Just last month, Robert Gibbs was still outrageously claiming that Ahmedinejad was the elected leader of Iran. Now, he’s leaving the future of Iran up to Russia? Does he honestly think that problems will just work themselves out if he ignores them long enough? It’s the most ludicrous example of leadership I’ve ever seen. Iran continues to be a tinderbox, and Ahmedinejad is crazy as ever. Yet Obama’s going to remove our missile defense shields and look the other way?

Hat Tip: Gateway Pundit