Iran and the West: the ruthless laugh at the weak, all the way to the enrichment facility
Does anyone else get the same feeling I do, that the Iranian leaders are toying with the West and its dialoguing hero Barack Obama, seeing their threats as just so much sputtering impotence? And should anyone with a functioning brain be surprised in the least by this Iranian announcement, and this Western reaction?:
President Obama and the leaders of France and Britain blasted Iran’s construction of a previously unacknowledged uranium enrichment facility and demanded Friday that Tehran immediately fulfill its obligations under international law or risk the imposition of harsh new sanctions.
“Iran is breaking rules that all nations must follow,” Obama said, detailing how the facility near Qom had been under construction for years without being disclosed, as required, to the International Atomic Energy Agency. “International law is not an empty promise.”
“All nations must follow”—who said, Obama? That outlaw pariah nation, Israel?
Oh, and Mr. President—“international law” is exactly and precisely that: an empty promise. Unless the nation being chastised freely cooperates, or unless the other nations of the world have some meaningful leverage to place on the country that violates it.
Or unless they are willing to back up international law with international force. Come to think of it, though, that’s not called international law. It’s called war.
[NOTE: If you read the entire article, you’ll see a few more things: Ahmadinejad’s exquisitely contemptuous message to Obama. Britain’s Brown responding by saying “Iran must abandon any military ambitions for its nuclear program,” as though he’s got anything to say about it. The news that Obama was briefed about this second enrichment facility back when he first came into office, and yet he still abandoned the planned missile defense for Poland and the Czechs last week designed to counter a nuclear threat, citing the fact that Iran wasn’t on track to develop nuclear weapons within the next five years.]
Ahmadinejad’s exquisitely contemptuous message to Obama
Guess that “racism” thing doesn’t translate so well into Farsi.
Obama’s probably looking for Ahmadinejad’s divorce records right now.
Obama is such a fool. He makes Carter look worldly.
It’s peculiar to listen to moderates, or however they might wish to be described, on the issue of Obama and Iran.
Christopher Hitchens and Walter Russell Mead hold out the possibility that Obama has been laying extensive diplomatic groundwork.
There will come a time, they say, when Obama will have got the final refusal, and then he can cry havoc and let slip the dogs of war. He will say to Iran, “I gave you every chance.”
Or maybe that’s what Obama is doing. They admit they don’t know for sure. But maybe that’s what Obama is up to.
Of course, that viewpoint took yet another hit with the disclosure that Iran has a second nuclear facility which Obama has known about since he became President-Elect.
Iran is convinced that Obama has a little stick.
I must be missing something. Why would Obama, who had been briefed about the existence of the Iranian nuclear facility during his transition to president, make an announcement about abandoning the missle shield program and cite, as his reason, that there is no evidence that Iran had made progress in its nuclear program?
If he’s laying diplomatic groundwork, this is a very odd way to go about it.
CV: Obama is being Mr. Nice Guy Statesman.
He won’t call out Iran beyond vague platitudes, but he’s keeping a list and checking it twice. When Obama finally decides that Iran has been naughty, not nice, then Obama will go to town on Iran.
Or something like that. Maybe. We’ll just have to see, though by then it will be too late.
“International law is not an empty promise.”
If it were, then much left side doctrine would be mere empty promise. Such cannot be the case. The left cannot explain why such is not the case, beyond: it cannot be, therefore it is not. Which is what Barack is doing in that statement. He cannot explain why international law is not an empty promise. He can only assert: it cannot be an empty promise, therefore it is not. If international law is an empty promise, then much of Barack’s organizing reality is shredded.
Obama is trying to tell the world we changed sides without actually coming out and saying so directly.
as i said, everything is hidden in ambiguity so that the reasonable can prevent any action as they cause us all to stand around like deer in the headlights. if it wasnt for them, he wouldnt have been elected… its a wait and see attitude that leaves no time.
He also believes that if he gets a big enough crisis, he can make all the changes he wants and become ruler for life. chavez, castro, zalaya, and others will help.
Maybe Obama’s mind works like this. He can’t criticize Iran for pursuing a nuclear weapon, because that’s what Bush did. So instead, he will convince all current nuclear powers to commit to global nuclear disarmament. When they do, that becomes “the rule.” Thereafter, he can chastise Iran for not playing by the rules.
When I was a little kid, there was always some little sissy that would tell the school-yard bully that he “wasn’t playing by the rules.” The bully would say “So?” and the sissy would wind up with a bloody nose. Maybe Obama never went to any school where he learned that lesson.
Obama – our “Gelding-in-Chief”…he ain’t got no stones.
Explains a lot, don’t it?
Maybe he should threaten to tell teacher on Iran…
Listen children, to a story
That was written long ago
Of an ancient mountain kingdom
And a desert far below
The mountain people were so wealthy
The desert people were so poor
The mountain people shared their wealth
But the desert people wanted more.
Then a rumor reached the desert
Of a fabled treasure hoard
Hidden deep within the mountain
Where the desert’s wealth was stored
Stolen by the mountain people
Buried deep beneath a stone
And the desert people swore
They’d fight to take back all their own.
So go ahead and hate your neighbor
Go ahead and cheat a friend
If you do it in the name of Heaven
You’ll be a hero in the end
There won’t be any trumpets blowing
Come the judgement day
For on the bloody morning after
One tin soldier rides away.
On this rumor, soon the desert
Sent a message up the hill
Asking after any treasure
Gold or jewels for which they’d kill
Came an answer from the mountain
“You’re our brothers, we will share
All the secrets of our mountain
All the riches buried there.”
Then the desert people shouted,
“They’ve our treasure! Draw your swords!”
And they killed the mountain people
So they won their just reward
Soon they stood before their treasure
On the mountain, blood-stained red
Moved the stone and looked beneath it
“Peace on Earth” was all they read.
So go ahead and hate your neighbor
Go ahead and cheat a friend
If you do it in the name of Allah
You’ll be a hero in the end
There won’t be any trumpets blowing
Come the judgement day
For on the bloody morning after
One tin soldier rides away.
With the mountain people dead
The desert soon ran out of wealth
First they tried to eat each other
Then they tried to eat themselves
The last one standing left this story
With a statement at the end,
“The mountain people killed us all
Because their peace they’d not defend.”
So go ahead and hate your neighbor
Go ahead and cheat a friend
If you do it in the name of progress
You say “I told you so” in the end
There won’t be any trumpets blowing
Come the judgement day
For on the bloody morning after
One tin soldier rides away
/spin, PP&M! spin like the wind!
you have the whole original poem…
ONE TIN SOLDIER / (The Legend of Billy Jack)
words and music by Dennis Lambert and Brian Potter
pp&m cut it down and the meaning changed…
Verse I
Listen children to a story that was written long ago
‘Bout a kingdom on a mountain, and the valley folk below
On the mountain was a treasure buried deep beneath a stone
And the valley people swore they’d have it for their very own.
(Chorus:)
Go ahead and hate your neighbor, go ahead and cheat a friend
Do it in the name of heaven, you can justify it in the end
There won’t be any trumpets blowing, come the judgment day
On the bloody morning after – one tin soldier rides away.
Verse II
So the people of the valley sent a message up the hill
Asking for the buried treasure, tons of gold for which they’d kill
Came an answer from the kingdom: “With our brothers we will share
All the secrets of our mountain, all the riches buried there.”
Chorus
Verse III
Now the valley cried with anger, mount your horses, draw your sword!
And they killed the mountain people, sure they’d won their just reward
Now they stood beside the treasure on the mountain dark and red
Turned the stone and looked beneath it –
“Peace on Earth” was all it said.
Chorus
its interesting that a song that says socialist attitudes are bad, and end in killing the golden goose – became an anti war trope used by socialists defending the politics of the people of the valley.
Do you ever wonder if Obama is as alarmed as we are that he is in charge?
I sometimes suspect he didn’t seriously think he’d win in 2008, but just wanted to punch his ticket to position himself for a later run. Next thing he knows, it’s “Hail to the Chief,” he’s looking around wildly, and realizes it’s being played for him. And he must know he doesn’t have a clue what he’s doing.
I suggest that Obama and leftists in general reason like this. They know that they are thoughtful, sincere, and correct. Even if they are sometimes wrong, they are the most thoughtful people to work on the next solution.
Others should be happy that leftists with good motives are solving the problem. If others disagree, those others may not completely trust or understand the leftists. The only remaining possibility is that the others are stupid, racist, insane, or taking advantage of the problem for personal profit.
Countries controlled by powerfull elites are not stupid. Democracies can be stupid, when they are controlled from time to time by non-leftists. Powerful elites in different countries understand the nature of power and the need to guide a mostly ignorant population, and so they are natural allies.
Another country may be fearfull and antagonistic, only because that country has dealt with other less enlightened and less thoughtful administrations. Demonstrations of friendship and unilateral concessions will eventually calm the fear. Then, both countries and elites can cooperate in the tough job of governing difficult populations.
Motto: We know that you are smart, and you should know that we are smart. Your uncooperative attitude must come from distrust. We will win your trust, and then we will cooperate to direct a better world.
Obama – our “Gelding-in-Chief”…he ain’t got no stones.
Good Ole Charlie: I’ve decided to go with “Cthulhu-in-Chief” for Obama because it preserves the C-in-C alliteration and reminds us that Obama is an Unknowable Horror.
You’re right, Obama has no stones, no cojones, no huevos rancheros … except on White House Breakfast Diversity Day.
But I try not to be negative and all so today I thought up a suggestion for our Cthulhu-in-Chief.
Maybe Obama should check the divorce records of Ahmadinejad and the Blue Dog Democrats. Maybe he could open some sensitive backchannel negotiations on that basis. You never know until you try.
BTW if you’re like me, you probably missed that the UN declared Sept 21 to be Peace One Day.
Here’s Jude Law to tell us all about it: http://www.youtube.com/peaceoneday .
Then listen to “One Tin Soldier” and, like, light a candle.
http://www.threadless.com/submission/129426/Baby_Cthulhu?streetteam=jstruan
I blogged this earlier this evening; could somebody check the accuracy of my translation?
World Leaders vs. Tehran
Obama as the ‘good cop’ makes sense — ’cause he’s gonna be pushin’ Israel to be the bad cop.
The one that does the dirty work of enforcing ‘International Law’ with violence, when they bomb Iran just before Iran gets a nuke.
Or … they’re too late, and Iran tests its nuke device on Tel Aviv.
“True Law” is the rules that are enforced. Like the “true speed limit” is about 10 mph over the legal speed limit.
I guess Obama thinks there is no genocide in Darfur.
Tehran had better be very afraid because they’re going to get some serious international law. They’re gonna get a real tongue lashing from our huevo-less-commander-in-chief.
This “laying of diplomatic groundwork” will be met with, “so what are you going to do about it, nuke us, invade us?”
They know all too well that this is the Obama of the far left wing, 60’s peace movement that opposed everything Bush did in Iraq.
Somehow I just can’t imagine, “I gave you every chance”, as much of a threat coming from him.
Neither will they.
Obama’s foreign policy = “Walk stickly and carry a big soft!”
Adagny: It’s hard to tell what’s going on with this latest Iran revelation.
According to WaPo, Obama and Iran were in some kind of race to see who would break the Qom news first with what spin.
Clearly Iran won that race handily and in so doing made Obama’s Big UN Speech about nuclear disarmament seem pretty ineffectual. It’s not clear that Iran is going to pay a price for this.
But if Obama is going to do something, and I’m as unpersauded as anyone here that he will, he now has a week to do whatever that is.
This is make-or-break time for Obama’s foreign policy. Maybe a good time to stock up on canned goods.
We are watching a huge train wreck in slo-mo.
Trouble is, we’re passengers.
And a manual can opener. Your electric might not work, so you ain’t gonna be much good without a manual can opener.
China and Russia are opposed to any action. Therefore Obama’s vaunted International Community will do nothing. The U.S., Britain and France won’t act unilaterally. They are all talk.
The last leader to take seriously the threats from a fanatic who “wasn’t fulfilling his international obligations” is still being vilified on a world wide basis, even after he liberated 28 million people and removed a genocidal, mass murdering stalinist who today would be developing nuclear weapons, if he had not been deposed.
Obama will talk until Israel has no choice but to attack. There will be world wide outrage against Israel when it does attack and Obama’s mentor, ghostwriter and former dinner companion (who taught him so much) will be delighted.
betsybounds: I’ve never owned an electric can opener. I’m not against them per se, but for me they just seemed like overkill.
Terry Gain: Good points. I’d note, however, that Iran just humiliated Obama. This time it’s personal. It might make a difference.
Here is what Obama thinks:
1) America & Israel are bad
2) Iran has every right to nukes.
There is no backroom diplomacy.
Obama is a leftist.
He believes in calling evil good and good evil.
He believes that all cultures are equally valid except ours and Israel’s which are uniquely bad.
He believes that the world is best viewed through an oppressor/victim prism and that those who are successful are only there because they are oppressors (unless they are leftists in which case it is because they are smarter and more empathetic than others), and that losers are only lost because the oppressors victimized them.
And he must raise up the victims and push down and punish the oppressors.
Look up Evan Sayet’s 2077 Heritage Foundation speech (haven’t followed him lately)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eaE98w1KZ-c
Oh, I should add …
That while not actively seeking nuking Israel, Obama wouldn’t have a big problem with it.
Like 9/11, it would only be what they deserve (in his mind).
After all to him, they are an oppressor sate and need to be brought low.
Obama’s perceived as so weak right here in New York that he hasn’t been able to talk our Governor — one of the least popular in the state’s history — out of running again — and polls say New York residents, including Democrats, are furious with Obama for trying it.
Meanwhile, here’s Sarkozy on Obama’s nuclear ambitions:
“President Obama dreams of a world without weapons … but right in front of us two countries are doing the exact opposite.
“Iran since 2005 has flouted five security council resolutions. North Korea has been defying council resolutions since 1993.
“I support the extended hand of the Americans, but what good has proposals for dialogue brought the international community? More uranium enrichment and declarations by the leaders of Iran to wipe a UN member state off the map,” he continued, referring to Israel.
The sharp-tongued French leader even implied that Mr Obama’s resolution 1887 had used up valuable diplomatic energy.
“If we have courage to impose sanctions together it will lend viability to our commitment to reduce our own weapons and to making a world without nuke weapons,” he said.
Mr Sarkozy has previously called the US president’s disarmament crusade “naive.”
http://biggovernment.com/2009/09/25/sarkozy-mocks-obama-at-un-security-council-hello-big-media/
Huxley,
I’ve don’t have an electric can opener either, and I wouldn’t walk across the street to get one for free. My point, though, was that (if we’re going to ground and stocking up on canned goods) an electric can opener won’t do anyone much good if we’re hit with an EMP.
Re: Tatterdemalian:
How about the old CSN&Y weepy whiner Ohio?
Especially the end part background wailing how many more?
Judging from the results of the 1960’s, I’d venture a dozen may have helped.
CSNY: Good music, bad politics. Neil Young in particular is unbelievably prolific and not quite right in the head. I saw a documentary recently in which he talked about his friendship with “Charlie” Manson before the Manson Family turned murderous. Young thought Manson had some talent as a songwriter, but “he didn’t respond well to being told ‘No.'” No kidding.
Manson to the Beatles: two degrees of separation. I guess all you need is “Love.” Peace, out.
If the worst comes to pass and Iran deploys its nuclear capabilities, we’ll be entitled to wear glowing t-shirts that proclaim:
Obama Lied, People Fried.
Let me slice through the propaganda – Right and Left
First the Right
A) the Czech and Poland based anti-missile shield was NEVER designed to deter an Iranian threat, rather a Russian one.
B) the Obama administration did not specifically cite a lack of progress in the Iranian nuclear weapons program as a reason for their change in policy, rather a lack of progress in the Iranian long-range DELIVERY capability.
C) the SECDEF sea-based military solution to the Iranian threat is a BETTER solution for the United States AND Israel. See map.
Now for the Left
A) the IAEA, indeed even our own intelligence agencies, have for the last several years purposefully contradicted the Bush administration and the Israeli government, emboldened the left, and misled the citizens of the United Stated, indeed the World, on the status of the Iranian nuclear program for reasons known only to themselves.
B) the Left believes that Obama brokered a secret deal with the Russians when he surrendered he the Czech and Poland based anti-missile program. While Russia has softened its rhetoric on Iran, there is no evidence that they have joined in any sort of coalition with the U.S., France and England. The left truly believes that the force of Obama’s personality has created a four-party coalition. This is a farce. Russia has its own agenda. They got Obama to remove the anti-missile shield and they will not support sanctions on Iran.
C) the Left believes that Ahmadinejad is a) not insane – only posturing and b) not the real authority in Iran. The truth is the Mahdi cult is as pervasive today in Iran as was the NAZI race-superiority cult in Germany before WWII. Ahmadinejad is in power BECAUSE the Ayatollahs WANT HIM TO BE in power. His insanity is their insanity.
The Middle East faces a stark future which Obama and the left have neither the intellect to grasp, nor the fortitude to resolve.
Today, there is only one world leader that has both.
Latest 3-D Chess News from the Huffington Post:
Obama knew all along that Iran had a secret uranium factory. He may be more of a master strategist than his foes–and even his friends–have realized.
The key to understanding today’s announcement on Iran is this: President Obama knew about the secret Iranian facility nine months ago. Before he began his strategy of engagement, he knew Iran was lying about its program. When he extended his hand in friendship, he knew Iran had built a secret factory to enrich uranium. Before he offered direct talks, he knew Iran was hiding a nuclear weapons breakout capability.
Each move was denounced as “weak” and “naé¯ve” by the right. That talk looks foolish today. These were the moves of chess master, carefully positioning pieces on the board, laying a trap, and springing it at the opportune moment.
We now know that Obama was not acting on impulse, or philosophy or general principles, but on deep strategy. He knew better than his critics that Ahmadinejad could not be trusted. He just had a better plan for how to deal with him.
Obama, you magnificent bastard!
Anyone holding onto the hope that there is more to Obama than talk is now all in. US-Iran talks begin Oct. 1. If it’s just more talk, more delays, more threats of sanctions, more sage multilateral guff, then Obama is exposed as nothing more than an appeaser.
Occam’s Beard,
I don’t think Obama ever thinks things through. He was so convinced that he was smarter than Bush that he didn’t consider what his outrageous comments would do to the country. Just take Guantanamo–he was too stupid to see that there were serious difficulties involved in dealing with people who fall into the chasm between criminal law and Geneva and that the beloved international community was quite willing to let us do all the dirty work and take the heat. He made a ridiculous promise to make himself look good and now he can’t fulfill it.
He has lived in a world where shallow theoreticians preen themselves on their insight and never get called on their failed ideas. He thought it would be easy to put together a team of rivals that he could preside over, much as he did at the Harvard Law Review and the Annenburg Challenge. He didn’t think he would have to do much himself. After all, he got through his whole life without doing much. Why should the presidency be any different. When he got hit over the head with the realities of the war on terrorism, Irak, and Afghhanistan, he stood back and let the Bush team continue rather than reveal his own ignorance. People praised him for his wise decision. It was only the average people at tea parties and town halls who had the guts to ask whether he knew what he was doing. That’s probably a first for him.
– Pass the stimulus bill and unemployment won’t get over 8%
– Out of Iraq in sixteen months
– Healthcare Bill by August
– Guantanimo closed by January 2010
I mean how many more times is Obama going to point his bat to a spot in the stands and hit a foul before these morons catch on?
They’ll never catch on. It will be like it never happened. But after awhile, you will find that many of them don’t support Obama, and they will tell you that they never supported Obama. They just voted in protest at 8 years of failed Republican policies and executive mismanagement. They weren’t wrong and couldn’t be wrong, because they are smarter than conservatives.
It’s sort of pathetic, but I don’t feel much sympathy for them.
“There will come a time, they say, when Obama will have got the final refusal, and then he can cry havoc and let slip the dogs of war. He will say to Iran, “I gave you every chance.”
G.W.B. played a similar scenario with the last war with Saddam. The Democrats, who beat the drums for action against Saddam for ten years, then proceeded to, almost immediately, betray the war effort they signed-off on, for nothing more than their partisan political opportunism. Unless there is some perceived political advantage to be gained for the Democrats, they’ll do nothing of consequence to confront the growing menace. We’ve been put on notice, concerning various foreign and domestic policy issues, by the entire Democratic Party, but most vividly by their crass betrayal of Honduras and publically posturing American foreign policy allied with the jihadi-leftist coalition against Honduras; that all traditional American interests and ideals are now on the “chopping block”. Obungler’s election marks the end of the last American administration, and the advent of it’s first dedicated left-wing regime, of traitors…
Vieux Charles Says:
September 26th, 2009 at 2:25 pm
Short answer: It’s Bush’s fault!
The change in missile defense from Poland and Czech to the new system using the “Standard Missile” is actually a good move against Iran. Iran has improved it’s medium-range missiles but not it’s long-range missiles, so the new system will be available sooner and be focused on Iran and it’s medium-range missiles, like the Sajjil and Shahab.
I don’t see how the move really hurts the independence of Poland or the Czech Republic, but there may be important symbolism I’m missing. Symbolism can be replaced.
This can only come off as pedantic, and I apologize in advance:
it’s = it is. As in it’s important to get the details right on our Iran policy.
its = possessive form. As when one refers to Iran and its medium range missiles.
My dad was an English teacher. (I had him for 9th grade Emglish and the experience has really stuck with me!)
I would have chosen another adjective.
Vieux Charles: Good points.
However, I’m hung up on the claims for Obama’s 3-D foreign policy chess playing.
Looks like we’ve got ringside seats to see how the game is played.
huxley,
Problem is that Obama doesn’t know about the 4th dimension.
Well that’s just great. Someone just HAD to mention Huffington Post. Now the Green Acres theme song is stuck in my head again.
E: I guess I’m pedantic too—see this.
Quite a few other grammar posts by me here.
Haha! 9th grade Emglish! My dad would kill me.
Vieux Charles, thanks for your restraint and good humor.
Neo, you and I are sisters at heart.
funny thing about the can opener.
it came years and years after the invention of canning.
Shame on you, comparing the lovely Eva Gabor to that wretch Arianna. When I hear her talk it reminds me of ‘Mars Attacks’.
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Obama’s so-called policies are just muddle-headed ignorance and are going to get us killed. Blood is in the water, and the sharks will attack. Just read any history book–any history book at all.
dont worry.. i am eating peanuts, have my towel, babel fish installed, and my electronic hitchhikers thumb is working… now, if we can just find some vogons and avoid their poetry.