Iran Hates America: Bush To Blame?

That is the view of top Barack Obama foreign policy advisor General McPeek. Now, before I address the validity of the statement, let's examine again whether or not the media is treating Obama they way they would other candidates. Imagine for a second if some Republican had blamed Bill Clinton for Saddam Hussein's hatred of America, a hatred that forced our hand in confrontation. Imagine if a Republican had said that constant incendiary language in the 1990's caused Saddam to feel threatened by the U.S. and insulted (a word that McPeek actually used in describing Iran's reaction to be among the axis of evil). I suspect that such a provocative statement by a top advisor of a Republican would be pounced on and turned into the top media story for days. I suspect that said candidate would be challenged to distance themselves from such a statement and even asked to remove said advisor. We will see if the media treats this statement with similar zeal.

The statement is absurd, of course, on its face. Our strained relationship with Iran goes back to 1979 and it has evolved since then. The most revealing part of the statement comes here...

Barack Obama’s senior military adviser is blaming President Bush for poor U.S.-Iranian relations, claiming rampant anti-Americanism in Iran would have been averted if Bush hadn’t included the Islamic Republic in the “axis of evil” outlined in the president’s 2002 State of the Union address.

This is a very standard globalistic, somewhat anti American view, that puts emphasis on making sure that our enemies aren't insulted. This is the equivalent of one of Winston Churchill's opponents blaming his incendiary language toward Hitler for the strained relationship between the two countries heading into WWII. This foolish idea that our enemies can be reasoned with, coddled, and charmed is of course a hallmark of Obama's foreign policy vision.

Obama believes that we have common ground with our enemies, and this particular statement is one microcosm of that. If only Bush hadn't called Iran one of the axis of evil, then we would be sitting down with Ahmadinejad right now and discussing, calmly, how to best move forward in the Middle East. Of course, the problem with that vision is that our enemies have agendas that run 180 degrees from ours in the region. Iran wants to create instability in Iraq. They want us to lose there so they can exert significant influence over it on their way to dominating the entire region. Obama seems to think that if we sit down face to face, we can get them to change their minds on their plans for Middle East and later world domination.

There were those that thought similary things about Hitler. Those folks were also wrong. Trying to reason with madmen is mad in and of itself. Our relationship with Iran isn't strained because Bush referred to them as one of the axis of evil, but rather because they have over and over done things that have earned them that title. Sitting down with them won't change that behavior. Folks like that will only respond to threats, isolation, and serious pressure. Those are not things that Barack Obama, and his foreign policy team, envisions confronting them with. I will wait and see if any in the media dares to confront Obama with any of these assertions.