One of the things this White House is really bad at is understanding that the small things we do and say are intensely perused for deeper meaning by our enemies, as well as our friends. Even things we do innocently are perceived as having wider meaning by other cultures that may rely more on their poetry and literature than we do or might merely be stuck deeper in a mindset of suspicion.
Someone once told me a story of how Jim Henson appeared in Russia with his Muppets. After the show, someone asked him a question:
“What do these Muppets signify?”
Henson replied: “They’re just Muppets.”
“Surely they must mean something. What do they stand for?”
“No, really, they’re just Muppets.”
Obama, oblivious to the meaning attached to his actions by others, is conducting a Muppet-based foreign policy. Perhaps this is because the president is a naïf and the secretary of state is just now getting some experience in foreign affairs.
Obama began his presidency with offers to chat with the Iranian leadership as reasonable fellows who all want the best for our children. When he realized this was only giving the Mullahs a good chuckle, he supposedly toughened up. But his actions say otherwise, and Iran is surely taking note.
The critical signal to the Iranians that we won’t oppose their designs on the region and their quest for nuclear weapons is our total withdrawal from Iraq. You really don’t need to be Talleyrand, Mrs. Clinton, to understand that this tells Iran that we want out of the region, and we will not back up our empty words.
The Iranians have for a decade been doing all they could to kill U.S. soldiers in Iraq and grab political power within the country. They are our strategic enemy, and it was imperative to keep a decent-sized force in Iraq to counter the threat. We did the very same thing in Germany after World War II to put the Soviets on notice, and it worked out quite well.
In the last couple of days, Obama has sent two additional messages of pusillanimity to our enemies in Tehran. As if more were needed.
According to the Jerusalem Post, Obama, who vowed to exact the most draconian sanctions known to man against Iran after they plotted to perform assassinations on our soil, is actually pressing Congress to weaken proposed new measures because they might upset people.
The Obama administration is urging US lawmakers to soften proposed sanctions targeting Iran’s central bank, Senator Mark Kirk said on Tuesday.
Kirk, a Republican, is the co-author along with Democratic Senator Robert Menendez of a proposal to penalize foreign financial institutions that do business with Iran’s central bank, the main conduit for its oil revenues.
The Senate approved the proposal last week 100-0 despite lobbying against it by Obama administration officials, who argued that threatening US allies might not be the best way to get cooperation in action against Iran.
Iran is reading those tea leaves, as well as well as these:
An opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal today describes how Obama is preparing to allow Iraq to take possession of one Ali Musa Daqduq, a Hezbollah terrorist responsible for the torture and death of five U.S. soldiers. Once he is given to Iraq, he will be on his way to Iran and a ticker tape parade through the streets of Tehran.
Obama, for reasons of ideology and possibly politics, doesn’t want to deny Daqduq to the Iraqis and doesn’t want to bring him here for trial. The authors write:
There is an obvious solution: Transfer Daqduq from Iraq to Guantanamo Bay to be tried by a military commission there. But this is where the Obama administration’s rigid ideology comes into play—beginning with flawed, self-defeating legalistic arguments . . .
The administration believes that bringing anyone new, even high-value detainees, to Guantanamo is inconsistent with the goal of eventually closing the facility. This proposition is absurd, and not only because that facility remains vital and relevant to this day. It raises the question of whether administration’s detention policy is actually shaped by a crass political calculus of not antagonizing its liberal base in advance of what promises to be a difficult 2012 election.
Mrs. Obama makes much of her campaign to help veterans’ families. It’s a nice idea, and certainly goof for her husband politically. But bringing their murderers here for trial is too inconvenient.
And it’s just the latest signal Iran needs to go fast forward with its nuclear program and its quest for regional supremacy. A policy of weakness ensures that down the road, even more veterans’ families will need comforting.
56 thoughts on “Obama to Iran: We are Weak, Do What You Will”
Everyone will see his evil when the Iranian opposition camp in Ashrafin Iraq gets leveled as soon as we leave
Taqiyya (alternate spellings taqiya, taqiyah, tuqyah), meaning religious dissimulation, is a practice emphasized in Shi’a Islam whereby adherents may conceal their religion when they are under threat, persecution, or compulsion. This means a legal dispensation whereby a believing individual can deny his faith or commit otherwise illegal or blasphemous acts while they are under those risks.
He knows exactly what he is doing
Some may doubt you, after all, lying is not a virtue in Western Civilization. But I was reading a site online for English-speaking muslims about all the situations that meant one must go on the pilgrimmage to Mecca. And there is said, quite straightforwardly, if you have to lie to official in your home nation to get the proper documents, that’s okay.
Yes, it’s okay to lie in order to get the papers to make a journey of religious significance.
President Onama’s foriegn policy reflects the man: Callow and feckless.
This man is destroying America.
He must go.
I close my eyes & see a pitiful excuse of a president roaming the WH with his arrogant nose in the air and a crowd of young groupies on his tail waiting for some “historic” words to utter from his lobster hole…
…a mere fart from him brings joyful insight to these misfits who blindly worship him..
Meanwhile the world needs a strong, decisive American leader..
“Lobster hole”… awesome!
Anyone else ever feel like we’re in a play by Aristophanes or Moliere and we’re just waiting for the Deus ex machina to pull us from the inextricable folly?
Maybe only Deus at this point.
Love the photo(shop), Keith!
Nice to see these two di_k-taters enjoying themselves…guess the photo is time-stamped 21JAN…2012?
Sorry…2013, as that’s when Obama joins Imaneedajob in Tehran, right?
What an abysmal failure in every respect. If were Israel, I would be very nervous. We can only hope the “accidents” at Iranian nuke facilities continue to happen.
And in a blatant show of spineless politics, he’s afraid to send a guy that murdered and tortured five of our best and brightest to Guantanamo to appease his base….in my mind that borders on a criminal offense
Someone once said to me, “It’s a wonder they [Washington politicians] can sit up with such weak backbones.” How right they are!
A brilliant man, no doubt.
can Obama find Iran on a map?
all those “present” votes when he was on the ‘Senate Foreign Relations Committee’
A unanimous vote in the Senate should be enough to show how this is going to go: MrObama can’t even get 1 vote there.
Excellent post.
Unbelievable this is what is passing as “leadership”. We should all be afraid for our country. The leaders of today don’t have the backbones that our 1776 founding fathers had to make America happen. Our founding fathers risked (and in many cases, lost) everything including their mortal lives for the dream of individual freedom. How abused those two words are today! Individual freedom to so many people means being able to defecate on cop cars….
These stories are multiplying: Fast Furious, Philadelphia Black Panthers, the WSJ Ali Musa Daqduq story. They will hardly make a ripple. Neither will the story tying foreign aid to gay rights:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/us-will-use-foreign-aid-to-defend-gay-rights-abroad-clinton-obama-declare-culture-no-excuse/2011/12/07/gIQAetrhbO_story.html
-Or that the Ft. Hood massacre was “workplace violence”:
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/12/06/military-growing-terrorist-target-lawmakers-warn/
I once thought this admin. incompetent. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Mike, I’m so far behind! So much material and so little time . . .
And you’re right. The sensory overload – now these things become acceptable, and the press is asleep anyway.
you know what I was thinking today, it being Pearl Harbor Day? I was thinking how grateful I am that President Obama wasn’t in charge when the Japanese attacked us in 1941. can you even imagine? “While we are deeply disappointed with our friends the Japanese for sneak-attacking us like that, we understand that there’s a lot of anger out there. we don’t always do such a good job of LISTENING to feudal societies who wish us harm. and I get that. I get that.”
this guy is dangerous. and he doesn’t seem to realize that once Iran gets the bomb, IRAN HAS THE BOMB. there’s no world where they go back and un-get the bomb. if I was the GOP I might mention that a few times.
Strong posts all.
This situation will only end badly in my humble view.
I wish Obama would like the rest of America like he loves his base.
But all I see is one America where those remaining alive will look the same; bloodied, cold and hungry. The base, the useful idiots, the rest of us will be indistinguishable.
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Aku terus berdiri “waalaikumusalam..ye doktor haikal.”
Walau tekad sekuat baja dan semangat membara serta tidak mudah menyerah pada kenyataan yang dirasa sangat menyiksa, tapi raga adalah tempat jiwa bersandar. Ketika dia tak berdaya apa yang harus dikata. Hanya berkilah jika perasaan yang menusuk jiwa ini benar adanya. Aku hanya meminta padamu Tuhan, berikan aku jawaban atas semua ini. Apapun itu. Aku akan menerima karena semua manusia mempunyai hak dan harus menghormati hak. Tapi hati juga mempunyai kebebasan untuk merasakan haknya itu.
“”I tak nak dengar cerita pasal dia!”
“nama saya Haikal, Muhammad Haikal Hakimi”, dia menghulurkan salam tapi aku dengan selamba tak sambut??? nak mati apa, tak nampak ke aku ni macam mana? bukan nak berlagak tapi ganas-ganas aku pun aku masih ingat halal haram.
“Saya mengatakan yang sebenarnya, karena pertama saya bertemu kamu saat itu saya sempat salah menilai tentang kamu bahkan saya mengatakan hal yang sedikit membuat kamu tersinggung.” “Benarkan..? Daryl menekankan itu pada naira, dan naira pun mengatakan, “iya sih pak, saat itu memang saya sedikit tersinggung tetapi sikap bapak memang wajar karena dengan kecerobohan saya akan membuat celaka.”
Aku meninggikan suara. Aku tidak mahu dia melibatkan Jay dalam hal ini sedangkan Jay sebenarnya yang banyak membantu dalam perjalanan hubungan kami. Kalau bukan kerana Jay sudah lama aku meninggalkannya yang tidak pernah memahami hati aku.
Oleh : Nieya Sarah“Weh, tak lama lagi ada pesta konvokesyen kan?” Maria bersuara sambil tangannya menunjuk ke arah banner Pesta Konvokesyen UNIMAS yang tergantung di tiang lampu.“A??ahlah kan. Esoklah dah start pesta tu. Aku…
Keesokan harinya aku ke taman kerana di situlah tempat aku meluahkan isi hatiku dan tempat itulah merupakan tempat yang paling banyak memberi kenangan pahit manis aku bersama dia dahulu. Di taman itulah tempat kami pertama kali bertemu dan di situ juga tempat terakhir aku bersama dia lepak setahun yang lalu. Kini ianya cuma tinggal memori luka sahaja.
“Not Jennifer anymore, Nur Solehah binti Abdullah,” dia menegur bicaraku. Alhamdulillah! Aku bersyukur kepadamu Ya Allah kerana telah memberi petunjuk dan hidayahmu kepada seorang saudara baruku, Nur Solehah binti Abdullah.Cerpen : Pengemis Kasih
Oleh : Salju Qaseh“Sebenarnya Syuk cintakan Lin” suara itu nekad.Nur Alina terkedu. Anak mata itu tidak berani dijamahnya. Hatinya tiba-tiba berderau. Darah seperti meyerbu masuk ke jantung dengan laju.Aimi Syukri senyum terpaksa. Tasik…
Oleh : nunupanPasif!!.. itulah sifat aku sekarang ini setelah hampir setahun dia pergi. Dari seorang insan yang ceria, seorang yang kelakar, aku akhirnya menjadi seorang yang pendiam, murung dan berduka. Aku bukan menyalahkan takdir, tapi aku sedih,…
Katil ditabur kelopak ros merah aku pandang. Kalo tak sebab kawin paksa, dah tentu-tentu sekarang aku dan suami ‘terchenta’ku tengah syok baring atas katil bertilam empuk tu. Aku cepat-cepat melarikan pandangan ketika mataku bertembung dengan Farriel. Ke segenap pelosok bilik yang dihias indah dalam masa sejam. Mudahnya menjadi orang kaya. Apa nak, semua dapat.
Oleh : MARSHA NABILLAMengantuknya. Semalam aku tidur lewat kot. Nak tahu tak kenapa?? Aku habiskan usha laptop tonton cerita korea fevered aku ar ?? Boys Over Flowers??. Tak sedar-sedar lagi tak sampai 2 bulan aku nak amek paper SPM.Tapi kira adil…Oleh : Cyda Yusof“Saya mahukan tujuh dulang hantaran dari pihak kamu!”“Tujuh dulang sahaja? Kamu mahukan hantaran apa? hati nyamuk? hati kuman? air mata dara?”“ Ini ada senarai barangan yang saya mahukan. Bawa kepada Raja kamu!”Panglima…
“Lah, dia nie. Aidid dah setuju dah. Takkan nak cancel macam tu je. Susah payah Ma Azi mintak dengan dia.” Pujuk Pn Aisya. Susah betul anak aku sorang nie. Turun perangai sape ntah.
Julan terus membuat catatan tanpa memandang empunya diri. Kin Ho mengetuk meja, meminta perhatian Julan. Akhirnya gadis itu mengangkat muka melihatnya. Kin Ho melempar senyum.
Alisha membaringkan badannya selepas dia kembali dari klinik tadi. Satu berita gembira yang harus dia sampaikan kepada Zafran. Namun dia akan menunggu Zafran balik dari Jepun nanti baru dia akan cakap. Terasa dia ingin muntah lagi. Dia terus berlari kearah sinki yang berada di bilik mandi. Keluar semua isi perut yang di makan tadi. Dia ingin pergi ke dapur untuk minum. Tekaknya kini terasa loya sekali. Sebentar tadi dia sempat mengirim sms buat Zafran.
Hampir 2 jam dia berdiri di depan perhentian bas, dari di kaki lima dia beralih ke depan palang kerusi, dari palang kerusi dia sudah berdiri di atas palang itu pula. Perasaan segan, malu atau apa saja yang diibaratkan manusia tidak lagi ada di dalam kepala otaknya, yang dia tahu cuma dia harus mengelak dari terkena hujan bahkan tempias hujan sekalipun.
Setibanya kami di kolej. Ramai wanita yang memerhatikan ke arah kami?Kami? Aku rasa tak kot. Mungkin diorang pandang Hakim. Takkan la semua wanita kat kolej nak pandang aku..Diorang kan dah tahu aku dengan Hakim kawan dari kecik lagi..Mungkin sebab kes Hakim berdating dengan si Damia semalam kot.
Aku mulai melangkah menyusuri segerombolan pemuda yang sedang beraksi , entah untuk apa mereka berderik dan berteriak seakan sedang perjuangkan hak asasinya dalam suatu kancah politik.
” Akak??? dah berapa kali yana cakap??? akak ni kan???” Liyana menarik muncungnya. Geram benar dia dengan tindakan kakaknya Shiema yang seringkali membeli petai sebagi ulam sewaktu makan. “Ala yana ni??? respect la sikit??? ni favorite akak tau.. tak ada petai, tak sempurna hidup akak ni tau.. so, jangan nak komplen apa-apa..” Jawab Shiema sambil membelek-belek ulas petai tersebut. Liyana hanya memandang. Dia kurang gemar dengan bau ulaman tersebut. Shiema hanya tersenyum melihat riak wajah adiknya itu. Sengaja mahu menyakat. Liyana dan Shiema tinggal bersama di ibu kota Kuala Lumpur setelah berhijrah dari kampung. Shiema berkerja sebagai Jururawat di Hospital Tawakal manakala Liyana masih menyambung pengajian dalam bidang perakaunan di salah sebuah Kolej swasta di ibu Negara itu.
“Ala…Aku gurau je..Takyah beli pon takpe..Tapi alang-alang korang dah beli..Aku ambik jee…Hehe..” Aku tersengih-sengih..
“Okey Encik Ezzat Hakimie.Keadaan awak sudah semakin stabil.Tapi awak ada ingat apa-apa tak tentang kejadian sebelum ni”.Doktor Hafez menyoal.Ezzat hanya menggeleng.Dia memang tidak ingat apa-apa yang terjadi kepada dirinya sebelum ini.Apa yang dia ingat dia keluar dari rumah disebabkan sesuatu yang sangat memilukan hatinya.
” Dia kan tengah keje ni . So mana boleh pakai cincin . Kan Qisya kan ? Lepas Qisya habis belajar kami nak nikah dah . Nanti Adam hantar kad jemputan dekat Fina .”
“woi!”sergah Fatimah sambil menepuk bahu kawannya itu. Sergahannya itu telah membuatkan Sofea tersedar dari lamunannya lalu dia terus mengalihkan pandangannya dari dua pasang mata itu ke arah Fatimah yang tersedia berdiri di sebelahnya. Fatimah terus menarik tangan Sofea menuju ke meja yang selalu mereka duduk di gerai itu.
“Padan muka. Nanti aku cakap kat girlfriend kau baru kau tahu”
Setelah memakai pakaian, tanpa bersarapan langsung kami tergesa-gesa bertolak dengan menaiki kereta nissan fairlady nya itu…Kelasss tak? Biasanya Hakim bawak kereta kancil je..Entah kenapa hari ni, dia bawak kereta favourite nya itu..Hmm…Ada something tak kena ni…
Kin Ho duduk, makan seorang diri di dapur. Anak tekaknya terasa semakin perit. Dia berdehem beberapa kali. Dia kehilangan suara disebabkan terlalu banyak bercakap semasa mesyuarat pagi tadi. Sambil mengunyah makanannya, fikirannya ligat memikirkan sesuatu. Siapa Nicholas Hiego? Pasti bukan adik Julan. Bukankah nama adik lelakinya itu, Avit? Harvit? Jadi, siapa Nicholas Hiego? Kin Ho memegang sudu,
dan
menjeling suaminya.
” Hey …… Liya cuba kau tengok betul – betul Daniel tu. Handsome ler. Bergaya, atlet dan kaya pula tu” ulas Zatul kagum.
**************
”Qisy , minggu depan Erul dengan Wan nak datang sini . Qisy ikut abang ehh nanti ? Kita pergi lepak dekat JB nak ?” Tanya Adam dengan muka yang sengaja di comelkan . Ingat dia comel sangat agak nya . Erul tu merupakan sepupu kepada Adam dan Wan pula adalah adik kepada Adam ni .
Tanganku sudah mendarat dikepala Daniel.
@~@~@~@~
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