Thirty two years ago Ronald Reagan introduced his Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) to the world with this quote: “We maintain the peace through our strength; weakness only invites aggression.” Derided by the left as being scientifically impossible and having the potential of reigniting the arms race with the Soviets, “Star Wars” as they called it, became a sufficient worry for the Soviets that it actually hastened their demise.
Later that year in one of my Political Science classes we discussed peace treaties in general and those with the Soviets in particular. Given the history of failed treaties from Munich to Moscow, the professor asked a simple question: “If it’s someone’s goal to kill you, to destroy you, is it unreasonable to expect them to lie about it in the first place?” The obvious answer was no, it’s not unreasonable at all.
That apparently is not a concept Barack Obama has ever picked up on. Today when it seems that we are but days or weeks away from an agreement with the Iranians – not to be confused with a treaty –the obviousness of that reality is crystal clear. In seeking to garner support for his “agreement” with Tehran, President Obama said this: “Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei has issued a fatwa against the development of nuclear weapons, and President Rouhani has said that Iran would never develop a nuclear weapon,“
As these words came off of the President’s lips, he had never sounded more like Neville Chamberlain, who on September 30, 1938 told the world: “This morning I had another talk with the German Chancellor, Herr Hitler, and here is the paper which bears his name upon it as well as mine. Some of you, perhaps, have already heard what it contains but I would just like to read it to you: ‘ … We regard the agreement signed last night and the Anglo-German Naval Agreement as symbolic of the desire of our two peoples never to go to war with one another again.” Less than one year later Hitler invaded Poland… not surprisingly, in concert with the Soviets.
Apparently, in Barack Obama’s world, we’re supposed to believe what the leaders of a terrorist state say… but only sometimes. When they endorse an EMP attack against the United States that would leave half the country in a blackout for months… not so much. When they suggest Israel, our strongest ally and the only liberal democracy in the region should be annihilated…nah. When they boast about cheating on the last nuclear agreement they entered into with the West… obviously not.
Of course we all know that Iran has a checkered past… the taking of American hostages in 1979, the bombing of the Marine barracks in Beirut in 1983, their longtime financial support for Hezbollah and Hamas, the US embassy attacks in 1998 and of course their active support for those fighting the US in Iraq for much of the last decade. But maybe they’ve changed over the last few years. (Or maybe in the last few hours as apparently just this Saturday Supreme leader Ali Khamenei called for “Death to America“.) Maybe they’ve seen the error of their ways, washed their hands of their terrorist proxies and turned over a new leaf… No, not really. At least not according to the governments of Israel in 2012, Peru in 2013 and Uruguay just last month.
One has to ask, how is it even remotely possible that President Obama would consider an agreement with a country with more than three decades of duplicity and active support for terrorism against the United States and its allies? Why would he want to make life easier for a serial terrorist regime by pushing to drop sanctions against them? How is it even possible he would consider an agreement that would facilitate the world’s most dangerous regime maintaining its nuclear capabilities and beginning a nuclear arms race in the world’s most volatile neighborhood? How is it possible that a Harvard trained lawyer would think that a fig leaf of an international “agreement” would somehow keep a duplicitous regime – that boasts of cheating on just such agreements – from actually developing a nuclear weapon?
Is his need to validate his unwarranted Nobel Peace Prize so strong that he will put the world at risk? Does he so feel the need for a foreign policy “victory” of some sort that he will put the security of the United States in peril? Is his narcissism so great and his belief in his ability to bend the world to his will so absolute that he need not bother to actually pay attention to reality? Is he a Manchurian plant? Or has the marijuana and cocaine he did in school finally caught up with him and started to impair his brain function?
Whatever the explanation, Barack Obama’s willingness to ignore reality that virtually everyone else on the planet can see and plunge the nation and the world into a universe where a messianic regime preparing for the “end of times” is on the road to nuclear weapons is the ultimate betrayal of his office. If he goes ahead with his agreement with Iran he will not only be seen as the anti-Ronald Reagan, he will rightly go down in history as the 21st century’s Neville Chamberlain. Hopefully the cost of Obama’s folly won’t be nearly as high as that paid for Chamberlain’s appeasement. That might really tarnish his Nobel Prize.
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One difference. Chamberlain, for all is blindness as to Hitler and the Nazis real purpose, did not hate his country! To my knowledge no one has ever questioned his love for Britain.
In my eyes that makes it almost an insult to chamberlain to be compared with Obama. Nothing this President has done can convince me he has one ounce of love or respect for this country and her basic tenets. Interesting when making comparisons. up to now in my lifetime, one can safely say up to now Carter was the worse President ever and have a good case. But once again as with Chamberlain, as naive as he is in his beliefs, Carter is an honest fool and again no one questions his love of this country.
Not true, however.
There is a list of EVERY fatwa issued by the ayatollah.
It counts higher than 800 fatwas.
But this so-called fatwa against the development of nuclear weapons is NOT on the list.
It is a fantasy right out of Obama’s mind.
The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) says, “In fact, such a fatwa was never issued by Supreme Leader Khamenei and does not exist; neither the Iranian regime nor anybody else can present it.”
http://www.memri.org/report/en/0/0/0/0/0/0/7432.htm
I have to wonder what proportion of registered American voters buy Obama’s fantasy of an Iranian anti-nuclear weapon fatwa?
We may be on the cusp of the genesis of a full nuclear middle east. Historic times.
If only we had a more intelligent teleprompter for Obama to read.
Obama is an experienced enough liar himself to know that he is being lied to. It simply doesn’t matter. All he cares about is, 1) making a deal and basking in the headlines and 2) having someone to blame for the failure. See, he did all he could and GOT a deal, but those rascally Iranians LIED (gasp) and misled poor, trusting Obama.
But, that in no way diminishes what Obama accomplished for Obama. (Neither does that smoldering hole where Israel once was)
Paul Mirengoff of Powerline Blog makes a couple of great points:
1. Obama knows that the Iranian public has no say on the matter. Obama is naive about foreign affairs, but not that naive.
2. The Ayatollah Khamenei realizes that millions of his own people quietly loathe him. Thus, he demands the legitimacy he lacks at home from the outside.
3. Pretending that the Iranian people have a say in the nuclear negotiations, Obama publicly appeases the Mullahs.
Paul titles his essay:
PEACE IN OUR TIME, MULTICULTURAL STYLE
And, if we survive to write more history, that will be the way this speech plays.
And it makes SOOO much sense to “negotiate” a deal with a regime whose leader was videotaped saying “Death to America”.
Because that demonstrates such a tremendous foundation of good faith interest in abiding by the terms of any treaty….
@Nanny G: Why would Obama assume the Iranian people would be able to influence the acceptance or rejection of an agreement? He and Kerry plan to deny Congress and the U.S. citizen a say.
White House on Ayatollah’s ‘Death to America’: ‘Intended for Domestic Political Audience’
Caroline Glick outlines why we should be heartened to know that the current US negotiator with the Iranians is Wendy Sherman.
“Sherman negotiated the US’s nuclear pact with North Korea in the 1990s. The North Koreans used the deal as a smokescreen behind which they developed nuclear weapons while receiving financial assistance from the US which paid off the regime for signing the deal.
Once Pyongyang was ready to come out as a nuclear power, it threw out the nuclear inspectors, opened the sealed nuclear sites, vacated its signature on the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and began testing nuclear bombs.
Sherman is now the US’s chief negotiator in the P5+1 nuclear talks with Iran.”
There cannot be a Universal Caliphate without Iran. So Bambi will deal with them, still holding the hope that he will be the 12th Imam. This will be his legacy: Sharia law for all, conversion or death, 5 Pillars of Islam in every home; universal hajj.
He is a full supporter of fundamental Islam. The Mullahs trained him well.
No photographers in the WH: no pictures of 5 prayers a day.
We are in deep trouble. Iran gets the bomb. They bomb Tel Aviv. Israel retaliates. Russia retaliates. U S retaliates. Armageddon all around.
Legacy: smoking ruin.
@Ditto:
Wasn’t Netanyahu’s exhortation that “Arabs will be voting in droves” to motivate his voters aimed exclusively and irrefutably at a domestic audience? That sure got different play.
Obama and the rest of his administration know that, under the leadership of Netanyahu, the IDF will launch a strike before Iran can fulfill its ambition to wipe out Israel.
Obama gets a two-fer…. Degraded Iranian program, and he can blame the jooos for ruining his masterful peace plan too!
Bill.
I read that Death to America is recited every Friday at the end of prayers.
Both Ditto and Bill make good points about how Obama looks at words spoken in public.
Projection is a mental disorder whereby one sees one’s own motives behind other people’s actions.
Obama lies to the American people all the time.
So, he can identify with an ayatollah who he believes is doing the same.
Obama cannot validate that bogus Nobel. He did nothing to earn it and since being President has done far more to make the world more dangerous and less peaceful than leading the world towards peace.
According to some, Saudi Arabia is now being attacked both from the Yemen side and from Iranian agents.
Their 600-mile wall is unfinished, but it would not have been enough.
Sure they have lots of military equipment but most of their fighting forces are mercenaries whose Passports are being held by their Saudi prince-bosses-owners.
Will all those slave-soldiers fight?
Looking at the larger picture the “Bab al-Mandeb strait, a Red Sea shipping lane vital to oil shipments”is now within anti-ship missile and mining operational range of Iran.
Iran now holds Syria, is getting Iraq and Yemen, the shipping lanes, and THE BOMB.
Soon, most likely, all the wealthy Saudis will flee (with their money) to Europe and the States, Iran will take Saudi Arabia.
Sadly, for Iraq, the Kurds are aligning with Iran as the only one who will supply them arms.
Where’s obama?
He refused to meet with Bibi N. and now, this week he is refusing to meet with NATO’s Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg!
Is basketball all he cares about?
Granting Iran carte blanche on their nuclear program, may have those folks overseas talking about America’s next eternal flame.
“When The Mossad And World’s Wealthiest Arabs Want You Dead, What Happens Next?”
http://patdollard.com/2013/12/when-the-mossad-and-saudis-want-you-dead-what-happens-next-arabs-say-world-renowned-liar-barack-you-can-keep-your-plan-obama-stabbed-us-in-the-back/
“Poetic Justice or Act of War – The Assassination of Barack Obama”
http://www.dcclothesline.com/2…
@Nanny G:
I believe that that is mostly a myth — please enlighten us as to how many “millionS” — maybe like a couple million or so Sunni Arabs in the southwest and maybe a few hundred thou ‘upper class’ and their kids/students and some Baha’i that are still left — vs 10’s of millions Shiite TRUE believers