Watching Obama from Tehran
Iranian President Ahmadinejad has great admiration for his own fortune-telling capabilities. For years, he has been making all kinds of predictions. Among his most famous are the destruction of Israel and the end of the “U.S. empire.”
In March 2008, he made another prediction.
“They would not allow Obama to become the U.S. president,” declared the Iranian president confidently in an interview with the Spanish newspaper El Pais.
This new failure in his clairvoyance has probably disappointed the president.
Nevertheless, he took the time to congratulate the man he thought would never become president by saying, “Tehran welcomes basic and fair changes in U.S. policies and conducts.” He added what is obviously his idea of helpful advice: ”I hope you will prefer real public interests and justice to the never-ending demands of a selfish minority and seize the opportunity to serve people so that you will be remembered with high esteem.”
Despite this message, the conservative hard-line camp in Iran is worried about the overwhelming enthusiasm and support for the U.S. that Obama’s election has created around the world. A popular American president who talks about peace and wants to negotiate with Iran would take away their justification for leading the anti-American front in the Middle East. Furthermore, increased international support and credibility for the United States represents a more serious challenge to Iran, especially if the international community initiates new sanctions against Tehran. All this while oil prices are falling.
This is why efforts are already efforts underway in the Iranian press to tarnish Obama’s image.
“A hawk in a dove’s outfit” is the way the right-wing newspaper Keyhan described Obama in a front page article the day after his election.
Pah! They don’t fear him. They’re setting him up to be their “useful idiot”. They have to say bad things now, so when they betray him later, it won’t bother their own people.
When you want to help a relative or friend in a difficult situation the best thing you can do is give them certainty. Taking away the unknown is a great help.
But if what you have is an agenda that you know is contrary to the other sides stated goals etc. the best thing you can do is create uncertainty. The Iranians have done this for years and the results have been an unfettered march to a nuclear weapon and many American soldier’s deaths on their hands in Iraq. So they will continue to play the olive branch approach while pursuing their nuclear, anti Israeli and Iraq destabilization agendas. So look to escalation in arms smuggling and more interference in Iraq, and an escalation of fighting (already started in Israel) between their surrogates (Syria, Hamas et al)in the middle east.
They will gradually turn up the heat and watch and see what Obama does. Since Bush did NOTHING when they did these things under his watch they will expect the same results with Obama. And in the meanwhile talk the peace talk.
Interesting to see if Obama is conned into this.
Obama will do nothing. He’ll talk, talk, talk while Iran murders gay people, Christians, and unmarried women who have sex. He’ll talk, talk, talk while Iran builds up its nuclear arsenal. He’ll talk, talk, talk while Russia invades former Soviet Provinces, Poland, and the Czech and Slovak Republics (of course, I told someone yesterday that Russia was going to do this and she said, “so?” I said that’s how WWII started and she just stared blankly at me so he’ll be aided and abetted by an American Public disinterested in the truth). He’ll talk, talk, talk when a bunch of Palestinians massacre Israelis at the mall or the McDonalds’ or the beach, but boy will he get mad when the Israelis fight back.
America has elected the 21st Century version of Neville Chamberlain. I only hope there’s a Winston Churchill somewhere…..
No one fears the “One” he’s a politcal girly man. The nutjob worlds rogue leaders know they will be able to BS or ignore him and the US for four years. The most they will receive is a UN note of displeasure. Has the “One” sent our military leaders to the UN for their orders yet.
Putin mouthpeice told him this morning get in the back of the bus and shut up. Its just the beginning.
What a Wimp !!!!
Running one’s mouth and running the United States are two different things. It’s easy to sit back and criticize. Remember when Pelosi and Reid were elected to end the Iraq war? Yeah, right.
The other commenters are right, Obama is already being tested and it will come to a head. He WILL have to go one direction or the other. Soon.
Angry White Dude
It is a moral depravity to own a dog in Iran .
Dogs are killed and their owners are put in
prison .
GOOGLE : dog Iran
Is it not possible that the world is watching
as Obama selects a dog for the WH ?
I doubt that the president of Iran has an ounce of fear regarding this wimp. Obama’s going to wet his pants the first time Putin raises his voice.
The biggest problem Ahmawhatzisname has is prioritizing the ways he’s going to tease and mislead this neophyte, and how he’s going to use Obama’s ignorance and arrogance.
mjk there is a Winston Churchill somewhere his name is John McCain second choice David Petreaus. Go to marklevinshow.com and listen to I believe wed night hour two of podcast. It is a speech Reagan gave in 1984 which would apply no differently today.
When a country is continuously being threatened by nuclear war, strangled economically, surrounded on all sides by countries which are occupied by armed forces poised to invade it, then I guess Iran has a pretty good excuse to bomb Washington. Way better than the U.S had for Iraq or Afghanistan(a WMD that didn’t exist and Osama ben Laden, on whom there is NO PROOF, check if you want..) Both invasions have only increased the possibility of attack against U.S citizens, and numerous pentagon papers prove that, though they barely made it to GW’s waste paper basket. Yet unread. If you want to fight terrorism, STOP PARTICIPATING IN IT.
I am going to put in a different view. Obama chose Rahm Emmanual as his Chief of Staff. Now, I recognize that he was chosen for his domestic political savy and not his foreign policy views but consider this.
– Emmanual’s father is Irgun.
– Emmunaul is an Orthodox Jew and a Zionist
– He has served in the IDF
– He has connections to all of Israel’s major political parties
There is no way that Rahm Emmanual is not Mossad’s man in the Democratic hierarchy
Before any of you blow this off consider this. Republicans support Israel because it is the right thing to do. Because of the anti-Israeli bias in the Democratic Party’s base it would make a lot sense to put someone there to keep an eye on things. You have to remember that the “rightwing” Likhud Party would feel fairly comfortable with much of Obama’s domestic agenda.
I love the irony here. The dreaded “neo-Cons” support Israel out of principal while the Obama camp now probably has an actual Mossad agent close to the President. As Chief of Staff, Rahm is going to make sure that Israel’s survivability will be given top priority in the Obama Adminstration.
May Joe Biden isn’t as stupid as he sounds. Maybe the base is going to all riled up because Obama is going to do exactly what Bush did in region. Support Israel, try to contain Iran but if that fails take them down.
Jerryofa
You are showing off a lot of ignorance:
-Emmanaul did NOT serve in the IDF
-Being an Orthodox Jew is still not a crime
-You don’t even know what the word Zionist means
Sorry but you are wrong. He went to Israel in 1991 to help prepare IDF for the Gulf War. That counts as service. He is a Zionist and if anybody has duel loyalties its Emmanual and not the so-called neo-Cons.
Rahm Emmanuel was chosen for his corruption in Illinois politics,not because his daddy supposedly fought with M. Begin…he is a sop to left wing Jews,the ones who live on Lake Michigan.The Jews that don’t want to be incinerated by nuclear bombs on Tel Aviv and Haifa might feel otherwise…
To Jc: no one has ever threatened iran with nuclear war….secondly 9-11 was done by angry muslims only ignorant people believer otherwise…considering all the islamic extremism in the world outside of israel, iraq, and aphganistan its pretty clear as the biggest threat to the world is islamic extremism….people will believe in conspirocy theorys because its easier than the hard truth
AVI. George Bush never threaten Iran with nuclear war? So “all options” were never “on the table”?, to take a direct quote. I believe you about the “angry Muslims” part, anger is always traced back to some sort of greavence, often very real, leading to “extremism”, as you put it. Why are they angry at the U.S? Is it because of it’s continuous support for harsh, brutal regimes like Turkey, in crushing the Kurdish population, Israel for the Palestinian, or even Saddam Hassein, whom the U.S supported throughout the worst of his atrocities, right up until the Kuwait invasion. And let’s not forget Saudi Arabia, the most extreme of all, and the U.S’s greatest regional ally, from where came 15 of the 19 hijackers. I encourage everyone visiting this site to read more history. Not conspiracy theories. History.
Some people treat world conflict like a back yard scuffle. Call me a wimp but I want a president who will think about the consequences of a war before going to war. Think about it, do we really want to go guns blazing every time a leader says are does something that goes against our policies? Our next leader needs to chose his fights carefully. Some of these fight will be won with his gifts of words. Other will need to be won on the battlefield. We should pray that Obama’s gift for gab gets out of shows of force. Our economy nor our miliatary can stand much more strain.
Bush took a cowboy mentality. He went it alone without the help of key allies. He left the job in Afghanistan unfinished (a conflict that even a liberal wimp like me supported). He went to war in Iraq without consulting Powel or Schwartzkoff, the architects of the first Gulf War Victory. He talked tough and puffed out his chest and look what it got us. Trillions of dollars in debt, the disdain of the world, and two wars that have lead the the deaths of thousands or American service men. I’m all for defending American soverenity and way of life by any means necessary. Sometime the necessary tool is diplomacy and cooperation.
Oh no, they praised Obama and the liberal illuminati. Now they’re worried about him? What’s going to happen with Obama’s plan for a sit down?