Team Obama’s Iran Strategy in Tatters

Iran is perhaps the most humiliating foreign policy blunder in the young presidency of Team Obama. The people who keep telling us how smart their policy choices are; the bright boys and girls who created the strategy believed that the Iranian leadership was developing atomic weapons because they were facing a hostile US. The answer to this conflict was to end America’s antagonism toward the Iranian regime, promise non-interference, and then – voila – a miracle happens and Iran forsakes nuclear weapons. Obama takes a victory lap, and the oceans decline.

That’s a bit simplified perhaps, but let’s connects the dots. Obama’s Cairo speech was a repudiation of the Bush doctrine. Henceforth we would treat with Islam as if it were a nation, not a religion. No more “if you are not with us you are against us.” No more war on terror. No more concerns about terrorist support by Iran. No more support for pro-democracy programs in the State Department. No pre-conditions for talks with the government in Iran. Team Obama put pressure on Israel to give in to Palestinian demands and attempted to undermine the political base of a conservative Israeli government.

The Great Satan was busily being transformed to the Great Dhimmi, but then fate intervened; fate in the form of an election so brazenly corrupt that it brought crowds into the streets. The crowds grew larger and it stopped being about a fake election, and became a challenge to the entire regime.

And Team Obama – and the United States - is now faced with the possibility that the mullahs will be overthrown. And if they are replaced, will the new government want to deal with an American administration that sided against them and with their oppressors?

Team Obama never saw the Iranian people as partners in liberty. They had the same view of them as Chicago pols have of that city’s black underclass: a mass of voters who can be bought off with minimal public assistance, decrepit public housing, and the generous use of graft to keep the “leaders” loyal. The Obama administration does not understand the anger and rage that can develop in a people who yearn for more than handouts and race baiting speeches like those delivered by the likes of Reverend Wright.

Team Obama may have scored a “two-fer:” the contempt of both the American and the Iranian people.

UPDATE: The leader of the opposition has put up a statement that echoes my view:

From the Office of Mr. Mir Hossein Mousavi

To the President of the USA, Mr. Barack Hussein Obama:

Dear Mr. President,

In the name of the Iranian people, we want you to know that when you recently made the statement "Achmadinejad or Mousavi? Two of a kind,” we consider this as a grave and deep insult, not just to Mr. Mousavi but especially against the judgment of the Iranian people, against our moral conviction and intelligence, especially those of the young generation that comprises a population of 31 million.

It is a specially grave insult for those who are now fighting for democracy and freedom, and an unwarranted gift and even praise for Mr. Khamenei, whose security forces are now killing peaceful Iranians in the streets of every major city in the country.

Your statement misled the people of the world. It was no doubt inspired by your hope for dialogue with this regime, but you cannot possibly believe in promises from a regime that lies to its own people and then kills them when they demand the promises be kept.

By such statements, your administration and you discourage the Iranian people, who believe and trust in the values of democracy and freedom. We are pleased to see that you have condemned the regime’s murderous violence, and we look forward to stronger support for the rightful struggle of the Iranian people against the actions of a regime that is your enemy as well as ours.