Thursday, June 25, 2009

Why Do They Hate Us?

I find it fascinating that it is so easy for many to claim we went too far in waterboarding three al Qaeda detainees in our unjustified fear following 9/11, but that it is perfectly understandable that Iran would support terrorism and seek nuclear weapons after we branded them a member of the Axis of Evil:


Ayatollah Khamenei condemns the attacks of 9/11 and many Iranians hold candlelight vigils. After the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan topples the Taliban government, American and Iranian diplomats meet together in Bonn, with a handful of representatives from other UN members, to form a new government and constitution for Kabul. Iran also cooperates with the United Nations to repatriate nearly one million Afghan refugees residing on its soil and provides support to the Northern Alliance. The brief U.S.-Iranian cooperation ends after President Bush labels Iran as part of the “Axis of Evil” in his 2002 State of the Union.


This is a common belief on the left side of the aisle but is complete rubbish. Iran was our enemy before 9/11 and Iran has been our enemy since 9/11. They are evil not because we called them evil , but because they are evil. Heck, Ahmadinejad doesn't even think Obama is much different than Bush:


President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad accused Barack Obama on Thursday of behaving like his predecessor toward Iran and said there was not much point in talking to Washington unless the U.S. president apologized.


I guess that whole outreach thing isn't really clicking.

Can we sink to any depths in a clear conscience because the Iranian mullahs constantly call us the Great Satan and don't see the nuanced smart diplomacy of President Obama as any different than that cowboy Bush's policies?