President Obama stood silent for weeks while watching Iran’s government shut down peaceful demonstrations, kick out foreign journalists, shoot and arrest peaceful protesters, and basically turn the country into a police state.

Yet, not 24 hours after an uprising in Honduras which ousted corrupt President Manuel Zelaya, Obama’s jumping on the anti-coup bandwagon with the likes of Castro and Chavez decrying the coup and declaring support for Zeyala. 

President Obama’s willingness to speak up on the Honduran coup is confusing given his reticence to speak about Iran.  Perhaps this is a good time for his Iran-tested “silent diplomacy” where, out of concern for seeming meddling, he states simply that “we’re still waiting to see how it plays itself out.”

Ray Walser, at the Heritage Foundation provides a good primer on the recent history of Honduras and how the coup is actually preserving the country’s democractic.

See also Mary Anastasia O’Grady excellent piece in the Wall Street Journal for a timeline of events leading up to Zelaya’s ouster.

And John R. Thomson makes the point in National Review that the ouster of a Chavez wannabe in Hondurus is hardly bad news for the United States.