Obama on Iran

Center for Security Policy email ^ | 10 Feb 09 | Unknown

[LSUfan]

Below please find the segment on Iran from President Obama's press conference last night. Several aspects of the statement are troubling, as is the new administration's entire approach to Iran, a nation that has killed Americans for over 25 years, sponsored Hezbollah, HAMAS and Al Qaeda and has repeatedly threatened America and our allies.

We are particularly troubled by Obama's choice of the language "financing" and "funding" terrorist organizations. Something tells us that isn't an accident. Words are chosen carefully when ever a president speaks publicly on foreign affairs as the audience is not just the American people, but the world--and things can get lost in translation.

Iran has done much more than fund and finance terrorism. They have armed and trained Jihadist terrorist organizations and taken part directly in operations.

Just last week the US Navy intercepted a ship that was headed from Iran to Gaza with missiles and rockets on board. Even more to the point, there is considerable evidence that Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) operate directly with Hezbollah in some operations and some members have been killed and captured in Iraq. That's why the US designated the IRGC a terrorist organization in its own right. Of course, Obama and Biden were two of just a handful of senators to oppose that measure when it came to a vote.

Unfortunately, President Obama's statement also totally ignores Iran's role in the insurgency in Iraq and Afghanistan as detailed over and over by the US military, as well as Iran's involvement with Al Qaeda, as detailed by the US Treasury Department within the last month.

This statement does not make us feel better at all. It makes us feel much worse...and all Americans need to know.

The economy is bad right now to be sure. But one day, we are all going to wake up, turn on the news and discover that the Ayatollahs have The Bomb. Our children and our children's children will always wonder how we let it happen.

*************************************************************************

Excerpt by President Obama on Iran from Feb. 9 press conference

Obama: I said during the campaign that Iran is a country that has extraordinary people, extraordinary history and traditions, but that its actions over many years now have been unhelpful when it comes to promoting peace and prosperity both in the region and around the world, that their attacks -- or their -- their financing of terrorist organizations like Hezbollah and Hamas, the bellicose language that they've used towards Israel, their development of a nuclear weapon or their pursuit of a nuclear weapon, that all those things create the possibility of destabilizing the region and are not only contrary to our interests, but I think are contrary to the interests of international peace.

What I've also said is that we should take an approach with Iran that employs all of the resources at the United States' disposal, and that includes diplomacy.

And so my national security team is currently reviewing our existing Iran policy, looking at areas where we can have constructive dialogue, where we can directly engage with them.

And my expectation is, in the coming months, we will be looking for openings that can be created where we can start sitting across the table, face-to-face diplomatic overtures, that will allow us to move our policy in a new direction.

There's been a lot of mistrust built up over the years, so it's not going to happen overnight. And it's important that, even as we engage in this direct diplomacy, we are very clear about certain deep concerns that we have as a country, that Iran understands that we find the funding of terrorist organizations unacceptable, that we're clear about the fact that a nuclear Iran could set off a nuclear arms race in the region that would be profoundly destabilizing.

So there are going to be a set of objectives that we have in these conversations, but I think that there's the possibility at least of a relationship of mutual respect and progress.

And I think that, if you look at how we've approached the Middle East, my designation of George Mitchell as a special envoy to help deal with the Arab-Israeli situation, some of the interviews that I've given, it indicates the degree to which we want to do things differently in the region.

Now it's time for Iran to send some signals that it wants to act differently, as well, and recognize that, even as it has some rights as a member of the international community, with those rights come responsibilities.

[Doogle]

...he should send Plugs and Bela over to discuss things...double team them with stupidity

[bergmeid]

It all depends on how you define “terrorism” and who you define to be “terrorists”.

We already know that the WOT is past tense. The Iranians will be our best friends. As long as we choose to be Shi’ite, that is. /sarc

I am going to throw up.

[SunkenCiv]

Several aspects of the statement are troubling, as is the new administration's entire approach to Iran, a nation that has killed Americans for over 25 years, sponsored Hezbollah, HAMAS and Al Qaeda and has repeatedly threatened America and our allies. We are particularly troubled by Obama's choice of the language "financing" and "funding" terrorist organizations... Iran has done much more than fund and finance terrorism. They have armed and trained Jihadist terrorist organizations and taken part directly in operations. Just last week the US Navy intercepted a ship that was headed from Iran to Gaza with missiles and rockets on board... there is considerable evidence that Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) operate directly with Hezbollah in some operations and some members have been killed and captured in Iraq. That's why the US designated the IRGC a terrorist organization in its own right. Of course, Obama and Biden were two of just a handful of senators to oppose that measure when it came to a vote.

[Dubya-M-DeesWent2SyriaStupid!]

link?

[LSUfan]

It was an email.

[Dubya-M-DeesWent2SyriaStupid!]

Ok I thought I missed the link. thanx.

[ETL]

Obama's Flip-Flops: IRAN

May 18, 2008: Iran, Cuba, Venezuela, these countries are tiny compared to the Soviet Union. They don't pose a serious threat to us. ...they spend 1/100th of what we spend on the military. I mean, if Iran ever tried to pose a serious threat to us, they wouldn't stand a chance.

May 20, 2008: Iran is a grave threat. It has an illicit nuclear program. It supports terrorism across the regions and militias in Iraq. It threatens Israel's existence. It denies the Holocaust.

Source for these genuine Obama quotes: NewsBusters.org:
http://newsbusters.org/blogs/brad-wilmouth/2008/05/23/fnc-shows-obamas-iran-flip-flop-colmes-might-talk-hitler