Hope Is Not A Real Foreign Policy

[Tigermike 3,054]

'Hope' is politics, not real Iran, Iraq policy

February 29, 2008

STEVE HUNTLEY shuntley@suntimes.com

The political salvos over Iraq between Barack Obama and John McCain the other day made for good political theater. More important, the exchange offered a revealing contrast between the politics of realism and the politics of hope.

It began with a question to Obama during the Democratic presidential debate Tuesday. Obama has pledged to pull U.S. troops out of Iraq and was asked if he reserved the right to go back into Iraq. He responded that "if al-Qaida is forming a base in Iraq, then we will have to act in a way that secures the American homeland and our interests abroad."

The next day McCain mocked Obama, ''I have some news. Al-Qaida is in Iraq." Obama fired back, ''I do know that al-Qaida is in Iraq and that's why I have said we should continue to strike al-Qaida targets. But I have some news for John McCain. There was no such thing as al-Qaida in Iraq until George Bush and John McCain decided to invade Iraq."

So what is Obama's Iraq strategy? It seems to be that he knows al-Qaida is in Iraq but he's going to pull out anyway. But if al-Qaida establishes a base in Iraq, he will go back in. Does that sound confused to you? Me, too.

His policy, in a nutshell, seems to be this: Pull troops out of Iraq and hope for the best. And anyway, the real issue is what cowboy Bush and McCain did five years ago.

Given the nation's weariness with the war, that message has proved to be appealing to Democratic primary voters. They want no truck with the grim realism of McCain's position that Iraq is part of the wider struggle against Islamist jihadism and will require a long-term U.S. commitment. Arguing over what happened in 2003 is a way to avoid facing today's realities, McCain reasonably argues.

Hope also figures in Obama's willingness, as president, to meet, without preconditions, America's adversaries like Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. French President Nicolas Sarkozy recently said he wouldn't "shake hands with people who refuse to recognize Israel." He didn't mention names but he meant the Iranian president.

Obama's position is cheered by his enthusiasts. They see his embrace of yes-we-can-talk diplomacy as a refreshing about-face from Bush's bellicosity. Hillary Clinton is the voice of realism this time. But her efforts to paint Obama's position as a naive one for a president in a dangerous world apparently aren't swaying many Democrats. Her cause wasn't helped when Bush chimed in Thursday, saying meeting with a tyrant like Ahmadinejad only buttresses an oppressive government, confuses U.S. allies and demoralizes reformers in Iran.

Given the complexities of the world, a president occasionally does have to meet with unsavory characters in pursuing vital foreign policy initiatives. Even when you think you've laid the proper groundwork, disaster can follow. President Bill Clinton labored mightily to coax Yasser Arafat to a negotiated end of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict only to see his work and peace hopes atomized by Arafat's allegiance to terrorism.

A President Obama would be taking a big gamble meeting with a rogue like Ahmadinejad without preconditions. Iran wants nuclear weapons, is a sponsor of terror responsible for mass murder as far away as Argentina, and has been at the heart of Islamist-inspired turmoil for nearly three decades. It stones women to death for adultery. It executes more children than any country in the world. Tehran lashes gays and kills them by public hanging. It jails, tortures and executes political dissidents.

When Columbia University, to its shame, gave him a platform last year, Ahmadinejad used it, in effect, to advocate an end to Israel, deny the Holocaust and claim no homosexuals are in Iran.

In a recent speech, Ahmadinejad said Iran has two missions. One was to complete the Islamic revolution in Iran. "Our nation's second important mission," he said, "is introducing the Islamic revolution to the entire mankind."

Hope may make for a good American political campaign, but it's not the basis for foreign policy.

http://www.suntimes.com/news/huntley/81871...-hunt29.article

[arnaldoabru 11]

Ahmadinejad is not the power in Iran.Iran is a little more modern than most of the Arabian world.I belive they actually think themselves Persian.Younger,educated,women can hold office,modern dress.There is actuall some potential there to bring them over to our side.It will take time.Calling them "evil",threatining to bomb them,tends to drive people away from your line of thinking.

[CCTAU 3,346]

Ahmadinejad is not the power in Iran.Iran is a little more modern than most of the Arabian world.I belive they actually think themselves Persian.Younger,educated,women can hold office,modern dress.There is actuall some potential there to bring them over to our side.It will take time.Calling them "evil",threatining to bomb them,tends to drive people away from your line of thinking.

Excuse me. Where the hell have you been? They are beating the hell out of anyone dressing in a western fashion, especially the women. It was all in the news, LIKE 2 months ago.

[arnaldoabru 11]

Ahmadinejad is not the power in Iran.Iran is a little more modern than most of the Arabian world.I belive they actually think themselves Persian.Younger,educated,women can hold office,modern dress.There is actuall some potential there to bring them over to our side.It will take time.Calling them "evil",threatining to bomb them,tends to drive people away from your line of thinking.

Excuse me. Where the hell have you been? They are beating the hell out of anyone dressing in a western fashion, especially the women. It was all in the news, LIKE 2 months ago.

Saudia Arabia doesn't? They are our friends.

[AUTiger1 0]

Ahmadinejad is not the power in Iran.Iran is a little more modern than most of the Arabian world.I belive they actually think themselves Persian.Younger,educated,women can hold office,modern dress.There is actuall some potential there to bring them over to our side.It will take time.Calling them "evil",threatining to bomb them,tends to drive people away from your line of thinking.

Excuse me. Where the hell have you been? They are beating the hell out of anyone dressing in a western fashion, especially the women. It was all in the news, LIKE 2 months ago.

Saudia Arabia doesn't? They are our friends.

Please tell me you don't really believe that?