[The Non-Euclidean Blog] More on Obama and Iran

[NEB]

A good buddy wrote in response to my last post:

One thought floating around conservative talk shows though was that the Iranians never rsvp'd or took the big O up on his invitation, so uninviting them really was not that big of a deal. It's like that one time I invited you over and you never responded so I put a thing in the paper saying that [you] been uninvited to Blake's house for a BBQ. Didn't phase you did it?

To which I responded:

Well, I think that sort of analysis is driven less by sober reflection and more by a drive to score points. If Obama *hadn't* rescinded the invitation, you can bet those same talk shows would be castigating him for continuing to extend a hand to Iran. See, no matter what Obama does, the conservative talk shows are going to find a way to tear at him. After all, they're built on ratings just as much as liberal shows are--both gotta play to the base.

It's best not to blow the invite rescension out of proportion, but I think it does matter. In the negative column, we never should have extended the invitation in the first place. That stupid action flowed from the mistaken notion that vicious regimes hated us because of Bush, rather than because of the powerful freedom this country represents. We unnecessarily gave Israel good cause to worry, and demonstrated the naivety of our current administration when the Ayatollah treated us like the same infidel dogs we were under Bush.

In the plus column, Obama was willing to make the right move in the end. Granted, he didn't have much choice--most of the planet despises the Iranian theocracy right now, so leaving the invitation open would be political suicide. Beyond that, though, I truly believe Obama is a decent--albeit horribly misguided--man. When presented with repression on an Iranian scale, even his leftist grid couldn't filter that out. The Ayatollah's regime is evil, and it didn't deserve the hand Obama has now withdrawn.

So I applaud the president for doing the right thing in the end. I wish he'd done it without throwing a shadow over our relationship with Israel, and I wish he'd realized sooner how wildly naive he made us look, but at least he withdrew the offending hand. Only time will tell if Obama has learned his lesson. Once things have settled down, we'll see if he tries extending his hand once more, or if he continues to treat the Islamic Republic like the mad dog it is.

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Posted By NEB to The Non-Euclidean Blog at 6/25/2009 04:13:00 PM