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More on Obama/Iran

Former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton has written a thoughtful analysis on the foreign policy priorities Senator Obama has said he would bring to the Presidency.   Here is a sample:
 
On one side are those who believe that negotiations should be used to resolve international disputes 99% of the time. That is where I am, and where I think Mr. McCain is. On the other side are those like Mr. Obama, who apparently want to use negotiations 100% of the time. It is the 100%-ers who suffer from an obsession that is naïve and dangerous.

Negotiation is not a policy. It is a technique. Saying that one favors negotiation with, say, Iran, has no more intellectual content than saying one favors using a spoon. For what? Under what circumstances? With what objectives? On these specifics, Mr. Obama has been consistently sketchy.
 
Meanwhile, I've attempted to converse with our friends over at Texas Kaos in an effort to bring forth a defense of the liberal support for Mr. Obama's position.  You may follow the discussion here
 
Tags: obama   Iran  
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Obama on Iran/Bush

Did you happen to catch Obama's speech yesterday from Waterton, South Dakota on the recent Iran appeasement fiasco?  What follows is analysis of a few selected quotes:
 
Obama: (Bush) accused me and other Democrats of wanting to negotiate with terrorists and said we were appeasers no different than people who appeased Adolf Hitler.

If you read the text of the speech (See http://www.whitehouse.gov/news... ) you'll notice Bush didn't accuse anybody of anything.  He said, "Some seem to believe we should negotiate with terrorists and radicals."  No mention of Obama.  No mention of Democrats.  Wasn't it Mr. Obama himself who once said that words mean something?  It was the Obama campaign who picked this fight.

Obama:  We are now entering our sixth year of war in Iraq.  We were supposed to be going over there for weapons of mass destruction which we never found.

That we never found WMDs is not true.  We found hundreds of them. (See http://www.foxnews.com/story/0... )  It is true that we didn't find the massive stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons that were thought to exist in Iraq, but we found evidence of weapons programs that could quickly be restarted should sanctions have been lifted.

This is not to say that there were not intelligence failures - there were - but Republicans and Democrats alike going back to the Clinton administration are on record as professing a belief that Saddam held WMDs, and the vote in Congress to authorize the war reflects this.  Thus, for Senator Obama to have opposed entering Iraq from the start indicates he either a) had intelligence in the Illinois Senate that the rest of the country wasn't privy to, or b) didn't believe a Saddam possessing WMDs was a sufficient enough threat to do anything about - which reflects directly on how an Obama administration might handle a nuclear Iran.    

Obama:  We have not been made more safe.

We haven't?  We have not suffered a major terrorist attack since 9/11, and under the leadership of President Bush the United States has gone longer without suffering an attack than at anytime in the last thirty years. (See http://img171.imageshack.us/my... ) Thus, in terms of civilian deaths due to terrorism we are certainly safer.

Obama: Al-Qaeda's leadership is stronger than ever.

Stronger than ever?  On April 30th of this year, the State Department released its annual report on terrorism  in which it said "AQ's organizational strength is difficult to determine in the aftermath of extensive counterterrorist efforts since 9/11, but several thousand members and associates comprise the AQ-associated movement. The arrests and deaths of mid-level and senior AQ operatives have disrupted some communication, financial, and facilitation nodes and disrupted some terrorist plots." (See  http://www.state.gov/s/ct/rls/... ) The Associated Press says that State Department counter terrorism coordinator Dell Dailey "stressed that al-Qaida is still weaker overall than it was before Sept. 11, 2001." (See http://ap.google.com/article/A... )

Obama:  Hamas now controls Gaza, a Hamas that was strengthened because the United States insisted that we should have democratic elections in the Palestinian Authority.

Is Senator Obama inferring here that democracy is only a good thing when the outcome can be controlled?  

Obama:  That's the Bush - McCain record on protecting this country...They're not telling the truth.

They're not the only ones!

Obama:  I believe we need to use all elements of American power to pressure Iran, including tough, principled, and direct diplomacy...That's what Ronald Reagan did when dealing with the Soviets.

Consider the following from Charles Krauthammer on how Reagan was treated while he was president:  "These were the twin themes: Reagan was stupid, and his stupidity made him dangerous. Those too young to remember the 1980s would be astonished to know how common the notion was of Reagan as a warmonger.  In the early '80s, the West experienced a nuclear hysteria -- a sudden panic about imminent nuclear destruction and a mindless demand to "freeze" nuclear weapons. What had changed to bring this on? Reagan had become president. Like George W. Bush today, the U.S. president was seen as a greater threat to peace than was the enemy he was confronting."  (See  http://www.washingtonpost.com/... )

Obama:  Understand George Bush's Secretary of Defense suggests that we talk directly to Iran.  

"We need to figure out a way to develop some leverage . . . and then sit down and talk with them," Gates said."  (See http://www.washingtonpost.com/... )  Notice the part about leverage.  This is how Reagan handled the Soviet Union.  He built up our military, actually increased our weaponry, such that we would have leverage by which to negotiate.  Senator Obama has said he would meet with Iran "unconditionally".  To be fair, he did say in the Austin debate on February 21st that there would have to be "preparations".  

Obama:  It's time to present Iran with a clear choice.  If it ends its nuclear program, support for terror, and threats to Israel, then Iran can rejoin the community of nations.  If not, Iran will face deeper isolation and steeper sanctions.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/mid...
Iran recently announced it is tripling its number of centrifuges to 9,000.  It takes 3,000 centrifuges one year to develop the enriched uranium necessary for an atomic weapon.  Has Senator Obama (or anyone considering voting for him) considered that we (and/or Israel) might not have time enough for an increase in sanctions to have their intended effect on Iran?

Obama:  But in the Bush/McCain worldview, everyone who disagrees with their foreign policy is (an) appeaser.

Now let's be fair.  Bush only accused those who would negotiate of appeasement, and he didn't name names.  If agreeing to sit down unconditionally is not negotiation, then Obama has no reason to take offense.  However, the question must be asked:  If an Obama administration will only "present Iran with a clear choice," what would be the point of a President Obama sitting down with Iranian leadership?  Typically, that stature is reserved for negotiations.

 
 
Tags: obama   Iran   bush  
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An Historical Perspective on Jimmy Carter

Former President Carter met today with the leader of Hamas, a terrorist organization which does not recognize Israel's right to exist, and he did so against the wishes of the State Department.  The following is perspective on Carter's decisions on Middle East policy, provided by none other than former President Reagan (via his autobiography). 
 
But I wasn't happy with the events in Iran.  The sudden emergence of fanatic Islamic fundamentalism as a political force in the Middle East was a development that would have posed a difficult challenge to any Western leader concerned with our strategic interests there.  It wasn't an easy situation for Carter to deal with, and he couldn't be faulted for the awakening of this dark and fanatical force.
 
But I felt that by standing by and failing to come up with a viable alternative to deal with the crisis when the Shah of Iran was forced from power in early 1979, the Carter administration had sown the seeds of the foreign policy disaster that would later engulf it.
 
I was told by officials of the Shah's government that after rioting began in the streets of Teheran in 1979, the Shah's advisors told him if they were allowed to arrest five hundred people -- the most corrupt businessmen and officials in the government -- the revolutionary fires could be extinguished, and they could head off the revolution.
 
But the people in the American Embassy told the Shah to do nothing, and he didn't.  Until the very end, he kept telling his staff, "The United States has always been our friend and it won't let me down now." Well, he took our advice on how to respond to the mobs and when he had to flee his country, the United States didn't even want to let him in for the medical care that he desperately needed.  It was terrible treatment for a man who had been our friend and solid ally for more than thirty-five years.
 
Yes, there had been serious human rights abuses under the Shah.  But he had done many good and progressive things for his country; he had brought it into the twentieth century, and in the years preceding his downfall, the Shah had begun to tolerate dissent to his policies and try to stamp out the corruption that was so prevalent in his country that had made it ripe for revolution.
 
Our government's decision to stand by piously while he was forced from office led to the establishment of a despotic regime in Teheran that was far more evil and far more tyrannical  that the one it replaced.  And, as I was to learn through personal experience, it left a legacy of problems that would haunt our country for years to come.
 
Years and years to come.  Indeed.
 
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