Should U.S. Have A Say In What Iran Does?

The Iranian election has been a hot topic the last couple of weeks, with constant reminders every day. (I feel like half of my twitter friends have green overlays on their icons!) The biggest question on my mind is: what do we do about it?

I have heard a lot of people expressing their frustration that the U.S. hasn't done anything to get involved. How can we sit around while innocent people are dying? And I am not talking about changing your timezone to Tehran to confuse the censors - I mean political action by our government. But the question is: what can we really do? The Republicans want President Obama to outright condemn the election results. Take for instance, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., who said on Sunday, June 21st, "He's been timid and passive more than I would like." We don't want anyone messing with us. What would happen if Canada decided to tell us how to deal with the Bush/Gore debacle? We would just laugh! And we are on good terms with Canada - we don't even have diplomatic relations with Iran! In fact, when Iran thought we were meddling too much in this process, they had to send a Swiss ambassador to tell us to bugger off.

Iran already blames us for the uprising in the streets. The leaders think that we have basically been egging the protesters on. They blocked the BBC in their country, and are always mentioning the U.S. as cause for the protests leading to violence. Finally, President Obama dedcided to speak out against the crackdown on Iranian protesters. Though I think that we should not get involved at all, I am glad President Obama referred only to the violent reaction to protesters and not on the election itself. Though I think the circumstantial evidence points to a fraudulent election, it's not our business. Besides, since the Supereme Leader makes all the decisions anyway, the president is under his control. Whichever candidate won, there wouldn't be much change in Iranian politics anyway; either Ahmadinejad would do what he wants like he has done, or, if Moussavi would have won, he wouldn't be able to change any of the things he wanted to.

How far is the U.S. supposed to go when injustices are happening in another country? Does it make a difference if we are on good terms with them or not? What would our involvement be if this same thing was happening in Canada, or the UK? Do you think we need to do more in this case, or have we done all we can?