Sunday, January 03, 2010

How's the Friendly Dialogue working out?

The Hill is reporting a story which shows what the president has received in return for his obsequiousness and shameless silence on Iranian thuggishness. Iran has decided that the president's naming of Senator John Kerry as his envoy to bilateral discussions is a good opportunity to thumb its nose at him and his administration:
Iranian legislators on Sunday decided to not allow a visit from Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry (D-Mass.), according to Iranian media.

"Members of the Iranian parliament's Foreign Relations Committee (a subcommittee of the parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Commission) voiced opposition to the request after studying the issue," Hassan Ebrahimi, head of the committee, told the semi-official Fars News Agency. . . .

On Saturday, Iranian legislators stepped up the rhetoric against the news that Kerry was considering traveling to Tehran with the blessing of the White House.

"The Islamic Republic of Iran has no plans to negotiate with any American official, unless the country (the U.S.) changes its policies," member of the parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Commission Zohreh Elahian said, according to Fars News Agency.

"Iran-US relations are not under such conditions that could produce results through a number of non-targeted meetings and talks," rapporteur of the parliament's Nationals Security and Foreign Policy Commission Kazzem Jalali told Fars on Saturday in response to a question about Kerry wishing to visit Iran. 

This is PRECISELY the opposite of what should have been the case. The U.S. should have put itself in position to dictate the terms of a dialogue, and by failing to act forthrightly with regard to this mind-bogglingly dangerous regime, we are now -- as we are today in Yemen -- the laughing stock of the world.

Now, as Fouad Ajami said recently in the Wall Street Journal: “No despot fears Mr. Obama, and no blogger in Cairo or Damascus or Tehran, no demonstrator in those cruel Iranian streets, expects Mr. Obama to ride to the rescue.”

Mr. Obama -- who hasn't hesitated to swagger when confronting his domestic political opponents, vowing not to bring a knife to a gunfight -- has chosen to bring a butter-knife to a nuclear showdown with certified madmen.

A sad day for a country that once could be counted on.

Hat Tip: Gateway Pundit

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