That didn't take long. President Obama last week gave Mahmoud Ahmadinejad an autumn deadline to negotiate over Iran's nuclear program. "We remain ready to engage with Iran, but the time for action is now," Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said yesterday in a speech to the Council on Foreign Relations. So much for waiting to see how Iran's post-election drama plays out.
Premature would be a generous description of this diplomatic outreach. Leave aside that this regime can't be trusted to negotiate anything. More immediately relevant is that millions of Iranians refuse to accept the "leaders" of the "Islamic Republic" (in Mrs. Clinton's words) that the Administration so eagerly aims to engage. Massive street protests roiled Tehran, Shiraz, Esfahan and other cities in the wake of the transparently fraudulent June 12 poll. The Basij and Revolutionary Guard goon squads got the people off the streets, killing an unknown number, and the regime blocked nearly all foreign reporting out of Iran...
More at The Wall Street Journal.
Comments
I was recently told by a person who works at a collage that they are teaching our children that the word American is politically incorrect. The new saying they are promoting is, we are people of America. Somethings wrong with that. I was born an American and will die an American. As far as Iran or the need for us to be international police is not working. If we were to take all the funds that we waste in trying to persuede other countries to be more like us, we would be able to feed ,cloth, and shelter all the people in the United States. It's time to think about the direction our county is heading. Do we really want to be called people of America? Not I.
Obama is well advised on Iranian affairs, and his understated stance on Iran's internal crisis is the correct approach. Any heavy handedness by the United States will only serve to undermine political moderates inside Iran. This has not been an "easy" approach for Obama, as he has been unfairly attacked for it by the opposition. The fact that he has not taken the politically expedient approach is a welcome sign of world class leadership.
I continue to not be surprised by anything that this administration does and I continue to not be worried about it. I actually think this is good. It is predictable, nothing will come it, and, most importantly, it is establishing a track record. In 3 years, when the next Presidential campaign kicks off, the challenger can point to 3 years of attempts at outreach and ask, "what has it accomplished?" I don't think it will sway the election results at all, but it might at least cause some people to think critically about how we deal with other countries, rather than just blindly accepting whatever is popular and sounds easy.
If the Mullahs are smart, they'll hold off on completing their nuke(s) until after the 2012 election.