President Neophyte on Iran during the Fear Speech

Posted on February 10, 2009
from Stop The ACLU

So, how does Barry want to deal with Iran? Let’s go to the transcript, which CNN scrubbed of all the um’s and ah’s and big pauses, sounding like a single dad trying to explain the birds and the bees to his daughter.

Question: Thank you, Mr. President. I’d like to shift gears to foreign policy. What is your strategy for engaging Iran? And when will you start to implement it? Will your timetable be affected at all by the Iranian elections? And are you getting any indications that Iran is interested in a dialogue with the United States?

Obama: I said during the campaign that Iran is a country that has extraordinary people, extraordinary history and traditions, but that its actions over many years now have been unhelpful when it comes to promoting peace and prosperity both in the region and around the world, that their attacks — or their — their financing of terrorist organizations like Hezbollah and Hamas, the bellicose language that they’ve used towards Israel, their development of a nuclear weapon or their pursuit of a nuclear weapon, that all those things create the possibility of destabilizing the region and are not only contrary to our interests, but I think are contrary to the interests of international peace. (bellicose language? I think multiple threats to wipe them off the map is a bit more then bellicose, don’t you?)

What I’ve also said is that we should take an approach with Iran that employs all of the resources at the United States’ disposal, and that includes diplomacy. (Been doing some of that. So has the EU and UN. How’s that worked?)

And so my national security team is currently reviewing our existing Iran policy, looking at areas where we can have constructive dialogue, where we can directly engage with them. (Getting rid of Israel, something your base wants, seems to be the only common ground. Is that where you want to go?)

And my expectation is, in the coming months, we will be looking for openings that can be created where we can start sitting across the table, face-to-face diplomatic overtures, that will allow us to move our policy in a new direction. (Try offering $100 steak)

There’s been a lot of mistrust built up over the years, so it’s not going to happen overnight. And it’s important that, even as we engage in this direct diplomacy, we are very clear about certain deep concerns that we have as a country, that Iran understands that we find the funding of terrorist organizations unacceptable, that we’re clear about the fact that a nuclear Iran could set off a nuclear arms race in the region that would be profoundly destabilizing. (yes, that mistrust started when Iran took our people hostage, and the president, a Democrat if your remember, Barry, did virtually nothing)

So there are going to be a set of objectives that we have in these conversations, but I think that there’s the possibility at least of a relationship of mutual respect and progress. (Nothing else to say but a juvenile bwahahahahahhahahahahahha!)

And I think that, if you look at how we’ve approached the Middle East, my designation of George Mitchell as a special envoy to help deal with the Arab-Israeli situation, some of the interviews that I’ve given, it indicates the degree to which we want to do things differently in the region. (Yes, capitulation is change)

Now it’s time for Iran to send some signals that it wants to act differently, as well, and recognize that, even as it has some rights as a member of the international community, with those rights come responsibilities.

And what are some of those signals?

TEHRAN — After the icy mutual hostility of the Bush era, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran on Tuesday made a conditional offer of dialogue to the Obama administration, saying Tehran was ready for “talks based on mutual respect and in a fair atmosphere.”

But he coupled the offer with an attack on former President Bush, calling for him to be “tried and punished” for his policies and actions in the Middle East and the Persian Gulf region.

Well, seems as if Mahmoud is thinking something other then “without preconditions,” eh? Maybe Barry could put some conditions on the talks, too, such as telling Iran to stop supporting “militants” in Iraq, who kill, maim, and attempt to kill and maim US troops and Iraqi civilians. Good thing the Barry admin is willing to talk. And talk. And talk. Winnie the Pooh diplomacy.