Talking To Iran

In the real world, where the game being played among nations is the old game of "king of the hill", threatening your enemies with angry letter writing...simply doesn't cut it. In fact it can embolden your enemies and make them more aggressive...which is the exact opposite of what you were hoping for.

Let's take Korea. We wrote them a letter asking them to back down from their nuclear ambitions...they knew we were weak and demanded blackmail money. We sent the money with a thank you note and now we find out they played us as suckers AND they still have a nuclear program and have ejected nuclear inspectors. So really they have become more belligerent and dangerous since we wrote them the first letter.

Now let's take a look at Iran. President Bush refused to talk to them and talked tough to them about continuing down the nuclear bomb path. Barack Obama, on the other hand, has hinted that he would be happy to talk to them. Even worse, he blames President Bush for the inability to get along with Iran...instead of blaming Iran for not getting along with anyone in Western civilization.

Thus our president fulfills a pattern in which new administrations place blame for the failure of diplomacy on predecessors rather than on adversaries. The Islamic Republic is not a passive actor, however. Quite the opposite: While President Obama plays checkers, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei plays chess. The enrichment milestone is a testament both to Tehran's pro-active strategy and to Washington's refusal to recognize it.

This Obama activity is making the world a much more dangerous place...the exact opposite outcome of what liberal "nice-doers" believe should happen when you are nice to people. They simply don't understand that in the game of nations....being nice is interpreted as being weak and scared in many nation's rulebook.

In his March 24 press conference, Mr. Obama said, "I'm a big believer in persistence." Making the same mistake repeatedly, however, is neither wise nor realism; it is arrogant, naïve and dangerous.
When Mr. Obama declared on April 5 that "All countries can access peaceful nuclear energy," the state-run daily newspaper Resalat (Iranian newspaper) responded with a front page headline, "The United States capitulates to the nuclear goals of Iran." With Washington embracing dialogue without accountability and Tehran embracing diplomacy without sincerity, it appears the Iranian government is right.

Read Wall Street Journal article here; http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123958201328712205.html