Iran Is a Landmine, Obama is Right to Tread Easy

The Republicans never got it right in the Middle and still do not get it. President Obama is well advised not to listen to the current criticisms from the Republicans that he ought to come out stronger in support of the opposition in Iran. Start with this principle: Iran is not our country. Second principle: the enemy of our enemy is not our friend. Third principles: The worst way to get burned is to choose sides in a struggle that it not ours.

The Republican idea of supporting the opposition comes out of along line of thinking than has led us to support almost every faction of the Middle East at one time or another from Saddaam Hussein to Osama Bin Laden and, in the end, have no real friends in the area.

What President Obama has shown, by his moderate talk with a clear emphasis on supporting the right to dissent and opposing the use of violence to quell protest that he understands that what we want in the region are democratic processes to grow, not just that who we might conisder to be a friend wins all the battles. And, any strategic interest that we want to pursue in the region demand that we have the ability to be in dialogue with all the leaders, not just the ones who seem to please us. So, we need to be able to talk to President Ahmadinejad and we need to be able to be in dialogue with opposition leader Mousavi. We do not need any new enemies and we have no permanent friends. We do not know all there is to know about Mousavi and what he stands for. He is likely more friendly toward the US, but, in the end, may pursue the same goals in relationships to Nuclear Arms, Israel, Iraq as the current government.

The solid ground is to stand up for democratic process, nonviolence, respect for human rights. This seems to be the ground that President Obama is staking out. It would be mistake to "try to get tough" as the Republicans insist he ought to, unless it is on this ground that toughness is based.

Iran, like Iraq, like Afghanistan, like Pakistan is a landmine for the US and will be for decades to come. These are not our countries. We do not understand, appreciate or respect their history, their culture, their aspirations, their internal conflicts, their way of doing things. We do not need to support one poitical group over another.

And, by the way, the probable truth is that Ahmadinejad does have the majority of the population on his side at this time, though Mousavi certainly is the most significant opposition to develop to the Ahmadinejad regime and the Islamic Fundamentalists who make up part of the current ruling coalition. And, it is also probably true that these last elections were the best in recent history.

It serves our security and the development of democracy in that region for the US to stay out of the political fray and stay focused on the human rights, protection of liberties and promotion of democratic processes.

The Republicans have proven themselves completely capable of tossing out the long term strategies that might produce a more stable and democratic region for support of factions that please their political purpose in the moment. This might be, in the veiw of the neanderthal leaders of the Republicans, a good current strategy to gain political points in the US, but is not good foreign policy and certainly not the kind of behaviour that will give us a larger, more positive voice in that region in the future. Stay the course Barrack!