Obama is Clueless on Iran

Gary Fouse
fousesquawk


Homosexuals being hanged in Iran


The current strife under way in Iran represents a great opportunity to resolve this great issue in our favor-indeed in the favor of the world. Unfortunately, with the Obama administration in power, that opportunity will likely be squandered.

Obama, in typical Carteresque fashion, believes naively that he can negotiate with the mullahs of Teheran and come to some sort of peaceful resolution of the on-going nuclear issue. Iran not only ignores him but spits in his face. Meanwhile, the Iranian regime goes merrily along supporting terrorism by its proxies, Hamas and Hizbollah, while viciously repressing its own citizens who are being shot down in the streets, arrested, tortured and hanged.

The issue is not negotiation. The issue is not reform. The issue is regime change. Lest those of you Iraq-war weary pacifists charge me with advocating an invasion, I am not there yet. What is needed from America (and our feckless "allies" in Europe) is a number of things that could support the dissidents in Iran without rashly driving them back into the arms of the government by using military action.

First of all, Obama should have long ago condemned the oppressive action of the Iranian regime. Instead he has been dragged off his Hawaii golf course into making some sort of statement to the effect that we "stand behind the protesters".

Secondly, instead of talking about stronger sanctions, it is time for the West to apply sanctions, not gradually, but drastically. Whatever the Iranians need, make sure they don't get it. Freeze their overseas assets. We could also keep them from access to gasoline. Surprisingly, with all the oil they have, they don't have the means to refine it. If we need to start a blockade of Iran, then what are we waiting for?

Should we eventually attack Iran? The danger of that is that it could turn around all those protests in favor of the government. First of all, given what happened in 1979, I would not send US troops to Iran solely for the purpose of liberating the Iranian people. Eventually, however, the regime has to be stopped from getting and using nuclear weapons or passing them off to terrorists. Under Obama, I doubt that will happen. Israel may have to take out the reactors in their own self-defense-without US support and is sure to be condemned by the feckless "World Community" that wishes Israel would just go away so "we could all live peacefully with the Arab world" (and their oil), another naive assumption.

Finally, we should be giving the Iranian protesters whatever clandestine assistance we can to make them stronger. (We can pretend we are back in the Cold War.) One important resource they need is communications equipment to keep reporting to the outside world what the government is trying to suppress.

Now is not a time for pleas for meetings and negotiations. History tells us that you can't negotiate with evil. It is time for us to ratchet up the screws on Iran in any manner we can and let the people overthrow this odious regime. Will we get any help from the Russians and Chinese? Of course not, but we can't let that stop us.

But alas; with this administration, instead of the above, we pretty much know what we are going to get. None other than John Kerry will be going to Iran to sit down and talk with the leaders of this outlaw regime.

He'd better pack his umbrella.

(For all you UC-Santa Cruz Community Studies majors, that's a reference to Neville Chamberlain.) Who is Neville Chamberlain, you ask?

Never mind.