Thursday, November 13, 2008

Obama Alters Iran Game Plan: Advantage US

The America-haters have to change their game. As Steve Benen at The Washington Monthly points out:
"Iranian leaders have gotten quite a bit of political mileage out of animosity towards the United States. Iran would call for direct, unconditional talks; the United States would refuse; and Iran would use the tensions as an excuse to repress its population."
It often goes unsaid but Iranian leaders want, and apparently need, tensions with the U.S. to justify their existence. The Bush administration has made conditions easier for Iran, not harder. Obama changes all that and has the mullahs on their heels.
Obama's willingness to engage Iran diplomatically puts the country's leadership in a "serious bind." Spencer Ackerman explained, if you're an Iranian leader, "All of a sudden, you're deprived of a method of demagoguery that's aided your regime for a generation. And if you refuse to negotiate, you've just undermined everything you told the international community you wanted, and now appear unreasonable, erratic, and unattractive to foreign capitals. Amazing how the prospects for peace are more destabilizing to the Iranian establishment than any inevitably-counterproductive-and-destructive bombing campaign or war of internal subterfuge."
The Mullahs can't use "the Great Satan schemes to destroy Iran!" as your battle cry against student activists and trade unions with Obama in charge. Those attacks have no teeth anymore. The diplomatic landscape has changed and Obama is not even President yet.

Source: The Washington Independent

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