President Obama may have star quality, charisma and a rockin’ beach body, but there’s one person he’s failed to impress during his first month in office: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
During an interview with the Arab-language TV station ‘- and occasional Hamas missile launch site ‘- Al Arabiya, Obama attempted to reach out to the roguish Iranian president.
‘[If] countries like Iran are willing to unclench their fist, they will find an extended hand from us,’ he told viewers.
But Ahmadinejad has since rebuffed Obama’s offer ‘- and he’s now demanding that the U.S. president ‘apologize to the Iranian nation’ for ‘crimes’ against Iran.
Ahmadinejad also insists that Obama put an ‘end to the U.S. military in the world’ and cut ties with ‘the Zionists, outlaws and criminals’ before Iran will consider speaking with him.
Other Iranian leaders have also rejected Obama’s recent overture. Iran‘s official government spokesman took a moment off from organizing another Holocaust denial conference in Tehran to mock the U.S. president’s invitation of friendship.
‘This request means western ideology has become passive, that capitalist thought and the system of domination have failed,’ Gholam Hossein Elham told the Mehr news agency.
Iran‘s negative reaction to Obama’s invitation is not surprising. The president brought it on himself by repeatedly disparaging the United States during his radio address to the Muslim world. By framing his words in an apologetic tone when he said, ‘Too often the United States starts by dictating’hellip;we sometimes make mistakes. We are not perfect,’ our president was essentially agreeing with Iran‘s fundamentally false premise that America has a reason to apologize to Muslims.
In fact, much of Obama’s Al Arabiya interview reflected the same anti-American undertones used by our enemies in the Middle East.
‘America was not born as a colonial power,’ said the president, indicating that he believes the United States currently engages in colonialism. Not only is this assertion decidedly false, it is also a common myth perpetrated by terrorist propagandists.
‘[The] same respect and partnership that America had with the Muslim world as recently as 20 or 30 years ago, there’s no reason why we can’t restore that,’ Obama said in the same interview, insinuating that the United States has not respected the Muslim world since the 1970s.
I wonder if Obama would dare say that to one of the millions of American soldiers who risked their lives to liberate Muslims in Bosnia, Kosovo, Kuwait, Afghanistan and Iraq over the last few decades.
Obama’s harsh analysis of America was in distinct contrast to his glowing portrayal of Iran. In fact, the only disapproving thing Obama said about the Iranians was that their recent actions, which include threatening Israel, pursuing nuclear weapons and aiding terrorists, have not ‘been helpful.’
By denigrating the United States and dismissing the rampant humanitarian violations of countries like Iran, Obama is giving radical leaders the fodder they need to continue spewing their anti-western propaganda.
Along the same line, apologizing or engaging in unconditional talks with Iran ‘- especially while it continues to ignore UN resolutions and sanctions ‘- will undermine our foreign policy and make us look weak in the eyes of the Muslim world.
U.S. and Israeli foreign policy leaders predicted a negative backlash from Iran when Obama first proposed unconditional, direct talks with Ahmadinejad during the 2008 presidential campaign.
‘We live in a neighborhood in which sometimes dialogue ‘- in
a situation where you have brought sanctions, and you then shift to dialogue ‘- is liable to be interpreted as weakness,’ Israeli foreign minister Tzipi Livni said on Israel Radio last year.
The Carter Administration is a prime example of this foreign policy blunder. Carter met unconditionally with throngs of brutal dictators: Castro, Torrijos, Kim Jong Il and Mugabe, just to name a few. The tyrants laughed at Carter’s naivety behind his back ‘- but still managed to dupe billions in U.S. aid and support out of the president during meetings. Despite all of the discussions, negotiations and U.S. concessions, Carter could not manage to convince a single one of these dictators to stop committing unspeakable humanitarian atrocities.
Carter’s passivity led to the capture of 52 U.S. diplomats who were held by Iran for 444 days, only to be released minutes after the hawkish Ronald Reagan took office.
Contrast that with President George W. Bush, whose policies got rid of Saddam Hussein and helped free 50 million Iraqis from tyrannical rule. Never again will Iraqi prisoners be beaten, humiliated and tortured in Saddam’s prisons and thrown into mass graves. The future for Iraq looks promising, and more importantly, free.
The same cannot be said for the oppressive regime in Iran. As the country continues to refine its nuclear program and Tehran prepares to host a conference titled ‘Holocaust? A Sacred Lie by the West,’ Obama is still scrambling to find a way to meet with leaders of the terrorist country. Media outlets reported this week that President Obama has been busy drafting a personal letter to Ahmadinejad.
I don’t know what the letter will say, but its message will be clear: If you want to be taken seriously, terrorism works.
Alana Goodman is a Collegian columnist. She can be reached at [email protected]
