Obama: Tyrannosavior Rex (#iranElection #honduras)

Obama’s foreign policy to date has been so erratic, so inconsistent, so egregious that it could mark the end of Realpolitik for ever (and good riddance!).

#iranElection The difference between a man and a jellyfish

Reagan had impressed upon his aides that he wanted to be kept well informed on Polish developments. "Less than two weeks after his inauguration," O'Sullivan relates, "Reagan met with his senior foreign policy advisers to discuss how to undermine Communist power in Poland and discourage Soviet intervention."

#iranElection A barefaced Christiane Amanpour

From my old blog: Monday, January 16, 2006

Poor Oriana Fallaci! She must be puking when she watches CNN! Her good friend - former, I hope - Christiane Amanpour, once a decent reporter, is now openly defending Teheran's regime (for love of her husband or his career? Return to her origins? Who knows?).

This morning she was broadcasting from a Teheran hotel room wearing an improbable and unwarranted green veil on her head, twisting facts and presenting them from the point of view of Ahmadinejad (and it's not the first time). Are we seeing a recurrence of the infamous CNN coverage of Saddam's regime?

And look at her now:

Christiane Amanpour, CNN’s chief international correspondent and a native of Iran, arrived back in London on Tuesday after her one-week Iranian visa expired.

#iranElection Do it, President Obama, please. Take the side of democracy.

During the campaign you mocked those who belittled your rhetoric as “just words.” Well, what you’ve offered so far is less than just words. You’ve put a fresh coat of whitewash on Iran’s sham “democracy.” On Monday, you proclaimed yourself “troubled” by the events in Iran, before hinting that you’d negotiate with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad no matter what an official investigation into his “landslide” victory found. (Would you trust Mafia internal audits, too?).

When following Iran’s elections on MSM, never forget this:

CNN admits that knowledge of murder, torture, and planned assassinations were suppressed in order to maintain CNN's Baghdad bureau.

In a shocking New York Times opinion piece, CNN's chief news executive Eason Jordan has admitted that for the past decade the network has systematically covered up stories of Iraqi atrocities. Reports of murder, torture, and planned assassinations were suppressed in order to maintain CNN's Baghdad bureau.

Well, well, well…

If you don’t want to puke or at least spoil your week-end, just skip this post. Straight from the WAPO (of all places):

DEFENSE SECRETARY Robert M. Gates earned modest headlines in the United States this week for playing down the possibility of a "grand bargain" with Iran after a meeting with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak (ed.which of course is what he is trying to pull off)…

The Obama administration, which has rushed to embrace Egypt's 81-year-old strongman, would do well to consider why al-Jazeera -- not known for pro-American sympathies -- would choose to trumpet that report.

Mr. Gates, like Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton before him, heaped praise on Mr. Mubarak while making clear that the new administration will not trouble him about his systematic and often violent repression of the country's liberal politicians, bloggers and human rights activists.

Yet, as al-Jazeera well understands, Mr. Mubarak and his fellow Arab autocrats are widely despised across the region -- and the United States is blamed for unconditionally propping them up. In fact, Mr. Bush won credit from many Egyptians for pressing for democratic change; he was criticized because he failed to follow through. Now, Arabs around the region are learning that the Obama administration is returning to the old U.S. policy of ignoring human rights abuses by Arab dictators in exchange for their cooperation on security matters -- that is, the same policy that produced the Middle East of Osama bin Laden, Hamas and Saddam Hussein.

Congratulations B.O.! Continue on this road and George Bush will be the new Reagan in six months (and in terms of foreign policy, that would only be fair).

Iran Policy

Jane “I was in Vietnam but I am still a coward” Kerry’s contradictory ramblings seem directed at further confusing the issue of what to do with Iran' terrorist activities, nuclear proliferation and continuing killings of Americans in Iraq and elsewhere:

The United States has stepped back from the notion of "regime change" in Iran…
…"Just as we abandon calls for regime change in Teheran and recognize a legitimate Iranian role in the region, Iran's leaders must moderate their behavior…
…Kerry praised the Obama administration's focus on diplomacy with Iran, adding that "engagement alone is not a strategy and talks are not an end in themselves."…

Interestingly, the Country Report on Terrorism, released at the end of April 2009, states, among various trends, this:

Iran "remained the most active state sponsor of terrorism".

Can anyone see where all this is going? I can’t…this is the only result I can see and of course the only alternative at this point would be this: Israel would inform, not ask U.S. before hitting Iran.

Anything for a friend

Iran and Venezuela signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on bilateral defense ties on Thursday. Iran's Defense Minister Brigadier General Mostafa Mohammad Najjar and his Venezuelan counterpart Ramon Carrizalez signed the document in Caracas, the official IRNA news agency reported.

The contract underlines an expansion of defense cooperation in education and exchanging experiences on defense issues, according to the report.

Najjar expressed Iran's readiness to assist Venezuela in developing its defense capabilities, it said. Najjar also met Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez who highlighted Iran's "positive and constructive" role in the Middle East and its position in the foreign policy of Venezuela, according to the report.

History repeats itself

The German Near and Middle East Association (NUMOV), an NGO whose honorary chairman is former German chancellor Gerhard Schröder, is promoting billions of euros of trade between German companies and Iran.

Why am I not surprised?

Arabs defending Israel

It’s good to know that at least someone has his feet firmly planted on the ground:

It is true that you can't help but get a funny feeling when you see the Arabs defending Israel from American criticism. But with the Obama administration's Middle East policy firmly grounded in La La Land, what choice do they have? They understand that today all that stands between them and enslavement to the mullahs is the Israel Air Force and Binyamin Netanyahu's courage.