Monday, February 8, 2010

Barack Obama: Hopelessly dangerously wrong on Iran

Barack Obama's policy on Iran has been...well actually Barack Obama hasn't really had a policy on Iran. Now Iran has announced that they're going to start enriching their stockpile of uranium, no doubt to create nuclear bombs. Nobody seems to know what Obama intends to do about this, which isn't surprising. Obama's attitude towards one of the world's most dangerous nations has been careless and apathetic from the start.
-- As a senator in 2007, Obama voted against a bill merely to declare Iran's Revolutionary Guard a terrorist group. He then vilified Hillary Clinton for voting for the measure in a debate, foolishly saying, "This saber-rattling was a repetition of Iraq."
-- As a presidential candidate, Obama's plan for Iran was incredibly vague. He never revealed whether he would bomb Iran if they refused to stop building nuclear bombs. He prattled on about exercising the "diplomatic option," but never bothered to specify what that meant. Even the New York Times called his position on Iran "unclear".
-- In 2007, America's intelligence agencies released a National Intelligence Estimate claiming that Iran was no longer working on a nuclear program. Conservatives reacted by claiming that the NIE was rushed and inaccurate. Obama swallowed the NIE hook, line, and sinker, and demanded that the Bush administration stop talking tough with Iran. Last year, Iran proved definitively that it was still manufacturing nukes...and Obama stayed silent.
-- When Iran revealed it was still feverishly enriching uranium and started test-firing nuclear-capable missiles, Obama started talking about "consequences" and "sanctions." There are literally dozens of news articles from throughout 2009 reporting on Obama's empty threats. He repeatedly claimed to favor imposing new sanctions on Iran (that'll have Ahmadinejad quivering in his boots). To this day, absolutely nothing has been done.
-- When tin-pot Iranian dictator Mahmoud Ahmadinejad rigged the Iranian election in 2009 so he stayed in charge, Tehran exploded in anger. Protesters filled the streets, only to be gunned down by the government. Obama sat on his hands, refusing to lift a finger -- or even say a few words -- to help the Iranian people. A few days later, Obama's press lackey Robert Gibbs disgracefully said Ahmadinejad was the president of Iran.
When a peaceful coup in Honduras threw out a corrupt Marxist leader who had already been voted from office, Obama refused to recognize the new president. But he's more than willing to let Ahmadinejad throw nuclear-capable missiles around. Forget hawks and doves -- can we just get a president who gives a damn about Iran, period?

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