Korean Job Discussion Forums

[ManintheMiddle]

Why I am absolutely beside myself, almost shocked, that the Leftists on this forum haven't posted about President Obama's recent appeal to the Iranian leadership?

In one breath he calls for improved relations while in the other he accuses them of evil deeds. Horror of horrors, this tone is reminiscent of the Archenemy, George W. Bush, but alas not a peep from the usual suspects.

C'mon, guys, show some outrage or at least measured indignation. Let's here you say it: "Obama pulled a Bush." Hey, I'd even settle for, "Is Obama taking a page from W?"

Actually, I wish Obama hadn't bothered to try making an overture as it was sure to be slapped down unless he worded it this way:

"Dear Servant of Allah on Earth, His Most Eminent Ayatollah:

We beseech Thee, to grant us forgiveness for our sins, though we know the Great Satan can never be fully trusted.

We regret in the deepest possible way our support for the Shah.

We are sorry for not coming to your aid in your holy war against the Sunni Devil Saddam.

We apologize for naming you part of an axis of evil.

We regret making a laughing stock of Ahmadinejad's fashion sense,
for we know he did not fall off a turnip truck yesterday but last year;

We are ashamed of our actions against your Shi'a brothers-in-arms in Iraq and our refusal to recognize Hizbollah and Hamas as the legitimate rulers of their respective peoples.

We know it is folly to support the Zionist State, which has caused you and your Arab brethren noting but grief,

And we grieve for those poor Persians who have suffered under our sanctions.

Iran is great, Iran is good, Iran is pleasing in the eyes of Allah.

All glory, including all manner of nuclear energy and arms, are hers and hers alone.

Join us at the table of brotherly love, we the infidel, in a time and in a manner of your choosing alone,

for I am but a mere President and you are God's annointed one on Earth."

See, now was that so hard?
----------------------------

[mithridates]

Bush gave the annual Nowruz greetings as well, but this one is of course getting more attention since he's the new guy. Bush giving the greeting was received in just about the same way that Ahmadinejad's Christmas message was - the speech itself sounds nice, but the fundamental distrust is so strong that it doesn't really matter. Obama has a chance to actually have an effect in Iran with these messages as the impressions of him within the country are still unformed.

In any case, this is just about trying to give Ahmadinejad as little to run on as possible, and this is why the Khamenei responded by saying that there's no difference between the two, as trying to tie the two together is their best bet to try to convince the Iranian people that they need a strong hardliner for president again and not a weak-kneed reformer (as they see them). He also left the door open to better relations with the US because he also doesn't want the hardliners to be seen as obstructing progress. The fruits of Obama's outreach won't be obvious until June 12th, so any attempt to judge until then will be premature.

[bacasper]

Good call, Manin.

As you know, I have been warning about Obushama from jump.

[mithridates]

[Gopher]

Nothing, ManintheMiddle. The B. Obama administration made a naive, idealistic, leftist gesture. "Yes, we can!" only goes so far, especially in world affairs.

This remains an uncompromising, hate-filled regime, a religious-fundamentalist state, whose interests clash so hard with ours that it does not matter who the American president is or what he does (barring our electing someone like W. Blum president, of course). Tehran will not coexist; Tehran will only dominate purely on its own terms.

At least the President learned this early and got it out of the way. And he probably will not put himself in the position of allowing Tehran to blackmail him, as R. Reagan did in the 1980s.

[ManintheMiddle]

Mith surmised:

[Chet Wautlands]

Even on a Saturday?

[Gopher]

[rollo]

I really do not see how the videotape harmed anything. the official Iranian response was as expected. Election time rhetoric . WE will see what happens in the next few months. There has been some low level feeler talks between the two countries. Thomas Barnett has written quite a bit about Iranian-U.S. relations and he seems somewhat optimistic about some kind of reapproachment in the future. Gestures like Obama's do little harm but have the potential for future good.

[Gopher]

Do you read Farsi, Mithridates? If so, what does it say? If not, why did you post it here?

In any case, although I cannot read Farsi, I do know for a fact that Tehran does not declassify documents. No one in the Middle East but Tel Aviv does, I understand. And I doubt that the BBC would be publishing these dox rather than this or that Near Eastern Studies department...

All of this notwithstanding, can you not simply answer my question directly, in plain language, and in English?

[mithridates]

Whoops, deleted that last post (Gopher's responding to some links I provided in Persian).

In plain English: I offer nothing more than my analysis of the situation, like any other poster here.

[bacasper]

[pkang0202]

The far left thinks that if the US disarms then countries like Iran will also disarm and everyone will have a big group hug.

[Ya-ta Boy]

Well, we've now heard how the Party of No feels about what Obama attempted. It would be interesting if the Man in the Middle, a misnomer if ever there was one, would enlighten us on what approach Obama should have taken. Somehow I don't feel the reaction/lack of reaction from other Americans is the key to this situation.

MitM, step up to the plate. According to you, Obama mishandled this situation. What should he have done? Continue the policies of the past that have brought us to this place, or some other approach?

[Gopher]