Obama and Ahmadinejad

A report has surfaced in the British press indicating that President Barack Obama is set to meet with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. (Increasingly, the British press is playing the role of watchdog when it comes to the Obama administration since US “journolists” have become essentially messengers for the regime.)

In this case, as Obama promised in his presidential campaign, he is reportedly set to meet directly with the Iranian president. Readers may recall that during the campaign Obama spun this idea by claiming that he was “not afraid” to meet with Ahmadinejad.

This is a foolish concept.

Meeting with Ahmadinejad is a mistake on several levels:

1. Meeting with Ahmadinejad represents a poor risk/reward ratio. It is highly unlikely that anything positive will come out of such a meeting, since Iran has been lying about its nuclear intentions all along. On the other had, the Persians invented chess. The Iranians would no doubt dangle carrots in front of Obama, who, like Pavlov’s dog, would salivate at the thought of reaching a grand bargain with Iran. This would buy the Iranians time–and time is really all they need at this point to finish enriching enough uranium (in violation of an international treaty and in defiance of UN resolutions) to arm bombs.

2. Meeting with Ahmadinejad makes no sense from a practical political standpoint. The President of Iran has no authority over foreign affairs or national security. He is essentially the “mayor of the country,” responsible for domestic issues. The final authority over matters involving foreign affairs and national security lies with the Supreme Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, a ruthless man who took over from the infamous Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini at the time of his death in 1989. In fact, all the real power in Iran is in the hands of Khamenei, not Ahmadinejad. Ahmadinejad serves at the pleasure of the Supreme Ayatollah. The Supreme Ayatollah has to approve the candidates for president in the first place and, rest assured, no one opposed to Khamenei will ever get the opportunity to run, much less serve. You can also rest assured that, if Khamenei decided tomorrow morning that he didn’t like Ahmadinejad any more, Ahmadinejad would be on his way out very quickly, one way or another. In other words, Obama, the president of the most powerful nation in the world and the leader of the free world, is set to meet with a deputy, an underling, from a third-rate, rogue power. This will accomplish nothing, except to win more support for Iran in the Islamic world, where that support is not absolutely a sure thing.

3. Meeting with Ahmadinejad is an insult to victims of the September 11th terrorist attacks and their surviving families. On multiple occasions in the past, Ahmadinejad has suggested that the attacks were an “inside job,” the work of the US government, or Israel. He has also said that the casualty toll was exaggerated and that no Jews were killed in the attacks because they were warned ahead of time not to go to work that morning. What good will meeting with such an irrational individual do for the security of the United States?

4. Meeting with Ahmadinejad is an insult to victims of the Holocaust and their surviving families, as well as all veterans of the European Theater of Operations in World War II. On multiple occasions, Ahmadinejad has denied that the Holocaust occurred, or claimed that it was exaggerated. He has even hosted conferences and cartoon contests on this subject. Obama may as well have a beer with David Duke if he is going to meet with Ahmadinejad.

5. Meeting with Ahmadinejad is an insult to US soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines and Coast Guardsmen who have served in the War on Terror, particularly in Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom. Iran has provided training, arms and safe haven for insurgents in Iraq and the Taliban in Afghanistan.

Keep these five factors in mind when and if Obama decides it’s a good idea to meet with Ahmadinejad.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/7940061/Barack-Obama-may-be-prepared-to-meet-Iranian-president.html

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