"The Violence Associated with this Vigorous Iranian Debate"

Press Secretary Robert Gibbs today:

Again, I think I would, you know, stress for you the importance of what the president discussed also in his comments both yesterday and today about ensuring that, while we -- while we abhor the violence associated with this vigorous Iranian debate, that we also respect their sovereignty.

Yesterday Abe Greenwald noted Obama's

"The violence." That free-floating phenomenon that seems to exist, for Obama, as something quite apart from human volition. Like a spontaneous state of affairs that is not only disconnected from national fanaticism or abusive governance, but in which there is scarcely a designation between the assailant and the assaulted.

Is it too much to say, "I call on the leadership of Iran to refrain from visiting violence upon that country's citizens"?