Iran has a wonderfully rich and beautiful history and culture. The fundamentalist Islamic route has robbed Iran of those treasures because of the US's meddling in their affairs back in the 1950s. Thus, we created the mess that occurred in 1979 - 1981 - with a bitter anti-American state. We then angered Iran even more by arming Iraq with WMDs to use against Iran in the Iran-Iraq war. So we instigated the mess even further. Relations somewhat thawed, though not much, during the 1990s under Clinton, but they again re-froze after 9/11 and when Bush called them an "axis of evil."
Finally, we have an intelligent president who is not single minded and wants to engage Iran, diplomatically and the people of Iran are tired of being isolated by the international community and having dealings with only highly socialist and communist regimes who suppress their people such as Venezulea and North Korea.
I criticized Obama's speech in Egypt at first... now I understand the reasons behind it. It was a brilliant political move that not only handed Hezbollah a defeat in Lebanon, but has millions of young Iranians who desperately want to have normal relations with America. His speech has affected the politics of middle eastern countries - so much so that they want to have better relations with us.
Ahmadinejad MUST GO!
Finally we have a President who openly subscribes to the Liberal axiom that the Muslim world respects weakness.
And, to help you brush up on your history:
"The first stirrings of this unholy alliance between leftists and jihadists were visible after the Iranian revolution of 1979. Again displaying a remarkable myopia about their new heroes crimesthe mullahs in Iran killed more people just in the span of two weeks in 1979 (about 20,000) than the hated Shah had in 38 yearsWestern radicals like French philosopher Michel Foucault indulged both their noble-savage idealization of the non-Western other and their usual adolescent worship of revolution.
Dupes by Bruce S. Thornton, City Journal 5 June 2009
Weakness? You call diplomacy weakness? You call reaching out weakness? Look what happened under George W. Bush - Iran became more right wing than it had ever been, as did Gaza, as did Lebanon and as did several other countries to counter our off-puttedness and tough cowboy rhetoric from W.
Do you call what Kennedy did, establishing communications with the Soviet Union after the Cuban Missile Crisis, weak? I'm not nor is Obama saying we'll make them allies and favorite trading partners like Bush did - but at least sit down and talk to those who want to talk to us. The Mullahs don't - they are like Bush and the hard line conservatives. This other guy, the Reformist, is like Obama. He wants freedom for the people of Iran, not some dictatorship. He wants open relations witht the US, where we at least talk to each other.
What happens, PC, when two people don't talk to each other? No one says anything and you're only left with assumptions of what the other person means. And you know what happens when you assume...
There is nothing wrong with talking so long as when you're done talking and the other side doesn't want to listen, you're ready to respond with action. If Obama doesn't exhuast every single diplomatic channel possible with Iran and we wind up, or Israel winds up attacking Iran - the people, the youth movement in Iran, the millions of people there hoping and praying for a better life, will all forget about everything and will turn against us and will setback relations decades if not longer. We have to try to talk, but never take the military option off of the table.
