One campaign slogan that U.S.
President Barack Obama has upheld to the letter was the promise to restore hope.
Indeed, America’s enemies have never been as blessed with this coveted commodity
as they are now. Their rooting for Obama’s re-election, then, was completely
understandable. But his behavior since then — including his choices of Chuck
Hagel for defense secretary and John Brennen as CIA director — has exceeded
their expectations, if not fulfilled their wildest dreams. Even if these
appointments are not ultimately confirmed, the radical-Muslim world perceives
them as an indication of presidential intent.
If the mullahs in Tehran had been
harboring any nagging anxiety about potential hindrances to their stepped-up
nuclear program, Washington made sure to alleviate it this week. The proverbial
Valium that the U.S. administration provided took two forms. The first was a
dose of “look the other way” in relation to North Korea’s bold nuclear test on
Tuesday. The second was a spoonful of sissy rhetoric sprinkled into Obama’s
State of the Union Address, mere hours after the bomb was detonated at the
Punggye-ri test site.
Iran is not only an ally of North
Korea — whose weapons-guiding technologies are being perfected for the creation
of an intercontinental ballistic missile that could reach the United States —
but it has proven to be in nuclear cahoots with the similarly murderous regime.
In fact, the Syrian nuclear reactor that former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud
Olmert attacked in 2007 was being developed with North Korean and Iranian
manpower and expertise.
It is safe to assume, then, that
Tuesday’s explosion was not merely a test of North Korean warheads; it was also
a test case for Iran — to see how the event would be responded to by the
“international community.”
Well, the warheads did just fine. The
international community, however, responded with “harsh criticism.” Oh dear.
That really had North Korea and Iran shaking in their boots and burkas — as did
Obama’s “tough” stance in his speech.
“The leaders of Iran must recognize
that now is the time for a diplomatic solution,” he asserted, essentially giving
the ayatollahs a green light to continue centrifuge activity with no
consequences.
To make sure they understood that he
wasn’t being a bully, Obama clarified that his policy extended to everybody
equally, and that America would have to set a good example. "… We will engage
Russia to seek further reductions in our nuclear arsenals and continue leading
the global effort to secure nuclear materials that could fall into the wrong
hands,” he said, “because our ability to influence others depends on our
willingness to lead."
The following day, on Wednesday, Iran
announced that it was installing new equipment for refining uranium. It was also
on Wednesday that international inspectors were not given access to a site
believed to be used for nuclear testing. Meanwhile, the United Nations nuclear
supervisory body and the International Atomic Energy Agency are still discussing
the wording of a document that will supposedly be drawn up at the conclusion of
talks with Iran — talks that have been going on for months with no results
whatsoever. The only outcome is that the U.N. and the IAEA are beginning to
worry that maybe Iran is actually planning on using its nuclear power for
less-than-purely-peaceful purposes.
Indeed, on Thursday, U.N. inspectors
returned from Tehran in a bad mood. They hadn’t even been successful at setting
a date for the next meeting to engage in diplomacy with the Islamic Republic — a
gathering that was supposed to take place at the end of February in
Kazakhstan.
But outgoing Iranian President
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was happy to see the inspectors leave. "… [W]hoever thinks
that the Iranian nation would surrender to pressure is making a huge mistake and
will take his wish to the grave," he declared.
While the rest of the West is bent on
avoiding any confrontation with Iran — to the point of ignoring the very real
and immediate threat it poses — Israel continues to be told that the most urgent
order of business in the Middle East is stopping settlements and establishing a
Palestinian state. That such a state would be another tentacle of Tehran has
been demonstrated as often as has Iran’s backing of terrorist groups across the
globe.
Whether it is Obama’s blindness,
radical ideology, or a combination of the two that prevents him from recognizing
this reality will be deciphered when his presidency undergoes an autopsy. In the
meantime, one thing is as clear as enriched uranium: He is putty in the hands of
those who would see America annihilated along with Israel. No wonder his “hope
and change” agenda is so popular among them.
Ruthie Blum is the author of "To
Hell in a Handbasket: Carter, Obama, and the 'Arab Spring.'"
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