The English word ‘martyr’ derives from a Greek word for ‘witness’.

This is not about the United States or the West; this is about The Iranian people can speak for themselves. That’s precisely what’s happened in the last few days. In 2009, no iron fist is strong enough to shut off the world from bearing witness to peaceful protests of justice. Despite the Iranian government’s efforts to expel journalists and isolate itself, powerful images and poignant words have made their way to us through cellphones and computers, and so we’ve watched what the Iranian people are doing.

This is what we’ve witnessed. We’ve seen the timeless dignity of tens of thousands of Iranians marching in silence. We’ve seen people of all ages risk everything to insist that their votes are counted and that their voices are heard. Above all, we’ve seen courageous women stand up to the brutality and threats, and we’ve experienced the searing image of a woman bleeding to death on the streets. While this loss is raw and extraordinarily painful, we also know this: Those who stand up for justice are always on the right side of history.”

The word shahid means witness, and also martyr. I think the concept of witness is also deliberate in Obama’s speech.

Not that I recall. I haven’t been following the coverage so closely as to put any weight on what I haven’t heard.

If this is true, I don’t see how you can blame the error on ‘McCain and his following’. I think I’ve heard it on both CNN and MSNBC, and I have not seen or heard it disputed until now.

They called him liar
and hamstrung her for the slaughter
Then their lord rumbled down upon them
for their crime and wiped them away
with no fear of what came after

Khameni’s tribe is the tribe of Thamud now.
And so is John McCain’s.

This throwaway line deserves a post of its own. Why should we think engagement is more likely to be successful now than in the past?

As one of the people who supports engagement without much confidence, I don’t see anything strange about that position. Engagement is unlikely to work, but it’s worth a try, and failure will leave us no worse off.

@jamie

It seems like John Boehner also declared victory over the Pres. Fortunately, I didn’t hear Obama say much beyond “ain’t it awful”. I certainly don’t see any UN action in the cards unless the whole thing tips into Civil War.