Hawks' shortsightedness

Iran's supreme leader, the Ayatollah Khamenei has praised President Obama's statement advocating diplomacy and not war as a solution to the Iranian  nuclear question and for saying that there is still a window of opportunity for diplomacy to work.  He called it "a wise remark."

This is a rare positive indication from the leader of a nation with whom we have had no diplomatic relations since 1979.

Now just watch the GOP candidates and the war-hawk pundits denounce this as more evidence of Obama's weakness and caving in to Iran.

Tell it to the parents and wives of soldiers who are now home from Iraq because of Obama's strong leadership as commander in chief.

Wiser people and calmer authorities (like our military generals) and the world's diplomats will see this as a very encouraging move from the Iranians and respect Obama for restraint.

Some people who know more about this still think that Iran is primarily developing a nuclear program for peaceful uses -- and moving a certain distance toward being ready to make the concentration of nuclear fuel needed for bombs, but not yet committed to actually making them.

Look, there really is their side to the story, as bad as their actions have been in some ways.   The United States did, without doubt, engineer the overthrow of their popularly elected socialist government and the assassination of their elected leader (just as we did in Chile).  We put the Shah back in power.  The result of that was the revolution that overthrew the Shah and installed the present Islamic theocracy.

In addition, Iran is vulnerable to the nuclear armed Israel, whom we back almost unconditionally and who is clearly threatening to bomb them.  Why wouldn't Iran feel the need to develop nuclear arms?

Let the hawks rave about showing our strength and rattling our weapons.   Obama is taking the right path, and he is far far stronger to be giving negotiations and diplomacy a real try.  Those who choose to undermine him for political pandering should be ashamed.

Ralph