Because 140 characters is not nearly enough
And no, my icon isn't nearly appropriate to what I'm about to say, but then again, no icon could be.
I heard the woman that called CNN from Baharestan Square, and it ripped my heart from my chest. The pain and fear in her voice, the raw emotion, is something that cannot be described. Just as she said she had no words for what she was seeing, I have no words for what I was hearing.
To hear her begging for help, begging for "you" (one can only assume she means those of us watching, ie the US) to save them... there are no words.
I know that President Obama is taking a lot of heat for the fact that he hasn't mobilized our military into Iran to help them, and I feel for him right now. As hard as it is for me to listen to these phone calls on television, or to look at the pictures of Neda Agha Soltan as she died, I know that for him, who has access to a thousand times more information than we have, it has to be even harder.
And the hardest part is knowing that we simply cannot get involved. It's not that we don't want to help them, and it's not that we don't want to save them, because we do.
It's that we can't. If the US gets involved, what is happening there now will escalate - more people will die, the killing will be more indiscriminate, and the situation will be 100 times worse than it already is.
Ahmadinejad and Khameni are trying to draw us in to this, trying to get us involved. Why? Because the second we commit ourselves, the second we march in there with our military and start saving those people, it stops being about the Iranian people fighting and dying for their freedom, and it starts being about the "evil imperialistic Zionists" imposing our will and our way of life on the Middle East. It stops being a matter of basic human rights and becomes a matter of Christians trying to kill Muslims.
Yes, people are disappearing - one person that I have been following on twitter from the very beginning last posted a prayer before dying and then disappeared, and I can't pray for him/her any harder than I am right now. Yes people are dying - we're watching them, we're seeing their blood spill on the streets in the few videos that people are managing to get out.
Right now, they are fighting for their survival and they are dying for their freedom. They are martyrs, truly, each and every one of them. They are sacrificing themselves for the greater good of their families, their children, their people and their nation. It is a noble sacrifice, an honorable death.
If the US marches into Iran and starts fighting the Basiji (and if reports are true, Hamas and Hezbollah as well), then those deaths cease to have meaning. Instead of martyrs to their faith they become puppets of the Western world. Instead of symbols of peace, those that have died become symbols of American imperialistic "oppression" of the Muslim world.
No, we don't want any more people to die - of course we don't. No, we are not cold and unfeeling, sitting around merrily munching our cheeseburgers while people die in the street on the other side of the world. We are with you in spirit and in mind, though not in body. We believe in what you are doing; we want you to have the government that you want, the one that you deserve - not one handed to you or forced upon you by others.
Freedom is never free; it is won by the blood and tears of the people willing to give their lives for it. Dozens have died to give their people the freedom they deserve, and yes, dozens more will die before it is over. But they die knowing that their death serves a greater purpose and that their sacrifice will not be in vain.
Why would anyone ever want to take that away from them? Why are so many people demanding that the US march in and take that away from them?
We hear you, and we pray for you, and we support you, but we cannot help you. And for that, we are truly, truly sorry.
I heard the woman that called CNN from Baharestan Square, and it ripped my heart from my chest. The pain and fear in her voice, the raw emotion, is something that cannot be described. Just as she said she had no words for what she was seeing, I have no words for what I was hearing.
To hear her begging for help, begging for "you" (one can only assume she means those of us watching, ie the US) to save them... there are no words.
I know that President Obama is taking a lot of heat for the fact that he hasn't mobilized our military into Iran to help them, and I feel for him right now. As hard as it is for me to listen to these phone calls on television, or to look at the pictures of Neda Agha Soltan as she died, I know that for him, who has access to a thousand times more information than we have, it has to be even harder.
And the hardest part is knowing that we simply cannot get involved. It's not that we don't want to help them, and it's not that we don't want to save them, because we do.
It's that we can't. If the US gets involved, what is happening there now will escalate - more people will die, the killing will be more indiscriminate, and the situation will be 100 times worse than it already is.
Ahmadinejad and Khameni are trying to draw us in to this, trying to get us involved. Why? Because the second we commit ourselves, the second we march in there with our military and start saving those people, it stops being about the Iranian people fighting and dying for their freedom, and it starts being about the "evil imperialistic Zionists" imposing our will and our way of life on the Middle East. It stops being a matter of basic human rights and becomes a matter of Christians trying to kill Muslims.
Yes, people are disappearing - one person that I have been following on twitter from the very beginning last posted a prayer before dying and then disappeared, and I can't pray for him/her any harder than I am right now. Yes people are dying - we're watching them, we're seeing their blood spill on the streets in the few videos that people are managing to get out.
Right now, they are fighting for their survival and they are dying for their freedom. They are martyrs, truly, each and every one of them. They are sacrificing themselves for the greater good of their families, their children, their people and their nation. It is a noble sacrifice, an honorable death.
If the US marches into Iran and starts fighting the Basiji (and if reports are true, Hamas and Hezbollah as well), then those deaths cease to have meaning. Instead of martyrs to their faith they become puppets of the Western world. Instead of symbols of peace, those that have died become symbols of American imperialistic "oppression" of the Muslim world.
No, we don't want any more people to die - of course we don't. No, we are not cold and unfeeling, sitting around merrily munching our cheeseburgers while people die in the street on the other side of the world. We are with you in spirit and in mind, though not in body. We believe in what you are doing; we want you to have the government that you want, the one that you deserve - not one handed to you or forced upon you by others.
Freedom is never free; it is won by the blood and tears of the people willing to give their lives for it. Dozens have died to give their people the freedom they deserve, and yes, dozens more will die before it is over. But they die knowing that their death serves a greater purpose and that their sacrifice will not be in vain.
Why would anyone ever want to take that away from them? Why are so many people demanding that the US march in and take that away from them?
We hear you, and we pray for you, and we support you, but we cannot help you. And for that, we are truly, truly sorry.