Obama's policy now requires getting past the election controversies quickly so that he can soon begin negotiations with the reelected Ahmadinejad government. This will be difficult as long as opposition protests continue and the government appears to be either unsettled or too brutal to do business with. What Obama needs is a rapid return to peace and quiet in Iran, not continued ferment. His goal must be to deflate the opposition, not to encourage it. And that, by and large, is what he has been doing.
I find it appalling that our president believes he can't stand up even a little bit for protesters who hope for change from their life under despotism. It's one thing to talk to dictators when you don't have a choice--but how moral is it when there is even a chance that you might be able to get rid of the dictator?
And when the Iranian regime is screaming bloody murder over the mild apologetic statements made thus far, what good is the president's restraint getting him?
Iran has accused the United States of "intolerable" meddling in its internal affairs, alleging for the first time that Washington has fueled a bitter post-election dispute.
If we're going to be blamed for meddling in Iranian affairs, we might as well actually meddle!
Why would just speaking up undermine his strategy of talking? I mean, Iran continues to support operations that kill American soldiers and continues to support terrorists. Yet that doesn't make President Obama less likely to talk to Ahmadinejad. Why must we walk on egg shells to appease thugs like Ahmadinejad? Isn't a grand bargain important to him, too?
It's almost as if our president thinks Ahmadinejad's support of terrorism is far more legitimate than a simple statement by him that supports the protesters' general goal of freedom and cautions the regime in Tehran from using violence against them.
The bottom line is that our president wants the peace of a cemetery in Iran. Let the people unhappy with the mullah regime shut up and go home so the smell of blood, gunpowder, and tear gas won't distract from the lovely signing ceremony our State Department has planned when we make a grand bargain with Tehran. If that requires a little bit--or a lot--of force by the regime to impose that domestic "peace," so be it. We will not be deterred from talking to the thugs. After a decent interval, of course.
No matter that Iran will not carry out their side of any bargain. Our president's plan focuses on the agreement and the photo ops that go along with it. The hopes of millions in Iran count for nothing in this game. Reaching out to the Moslem world apparently only means reaching out to the dictators who rule Moslems and not the actual Moslem people.
Don't those rubes marching about in Tehran and other cities going on about freedom know that a Nobel Peace Prize is on the line? Heck, they never revoke the prize, so it won't even matter that the grand bargain will be a sham before the ink is even dry!
Gosh, it's so wonderful that our reputation in the world is being "restored."
