Well, you know the answer to that headline “riddle,” if you read this blog. But things are really coming to a head today as the international negotiators await word from the Iranian government (not the people!) to the UN’s latest proposal: “The plan would give Iran access to uranium enriched to a level sufficient for civilian use, but lower than what is needed for a nuclear weapon. Negotiators in Vienna had set a Friday deadline for an agreement.
French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said the indications from Tehran are “not positive.” But he said he retains hope the Iranians will still accept the deal.”
A few days ago, many people (even a few Israelis?!) were jumping up and down about a possible nuclear breakthrough with the Mullahs. It’s the end of the day in Tehran now and it doesn’t look good (assuming this was even a breakthrough in the first place, and not a charade). The French, first President Sarkozy and here FM Kouchner, have been the skeptics all along, playing hardball with the vicious regime and being much more outspoken than our president when millions of democracy demonstrators took to the streets of Iran. More than anything, that demonstrated Obama’s core personality to me. Most of us were moved, sometimes to tears, by these brave people but Barack kept dreaming of some accommodation with Khamenei & Co., an accommodation that would yield him plaudits for negotiating a deal that in all probability would be worth less than the paper it was written on. I can’t think of one nuclear power that has told the truth, even remotely, about their development of atomic weapons. The US began the whole thing at the clandestine Manhattan Project. We should know, but apparently we don’t.
Meanwhile, as the current negotiations continue, every minute lost in blablabla is a minute used by the Iranians for weaponization. But we all know that and still the dumb show continues. There are no easy solutions, far from it, but only one superpower has muscle to do anything serious but we are as likely to do that as fly to Alpha Centauri with our current administration. No wonder Sarko is miffed, as indicated in a new “analysis” from Reuters. The writer ascribes much of it to personal slights, but even she eventually gets down to the nitty gritty – Iran: “Officials say the disconnect is centred on real issues, such as Obama’s attitude to Iran’s nuclear ambitions, which has been less hardline than Sarkozy’s hawkish stance.
“There is an annoyance about what the French see as naivety in the Obama administration,” said Bruno Tertrais, a senior research fellow at the Foundation for Strategic Research.”
More to come, undoubtedly.
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18 Comments
1. Charlie (Colorado):There is a point at which “naivety” finally has to be accepted as “obstinate cluelessness.”
Oct 23, 2009 - 9:48 am 2. Delia:1. Charlie (Colorado),
Innate EVIL has a very clever way of wearing the “obstinate cluelessness” mantle just so long as the sheeple buy into the ‘oops, my bad’.
Oct 23, 2009 - 11:41 am 3. Lester Hunt:I guess it’s only a matter of time until you neocons get us into another catastrophic war. If you thought Iraq was an insane mistake, wait until you see how invading Iran turns out.
Oct 23, 2009 - 11:43 am 4. Rich:Does anyone really believe that the mullahs will be kept bomb-free without the use of force by the good guys?
Oct 23, 2009 - 11:52 am 5. cfbleachers:The French…the FRENCH are tougher than we are these days.
Not only are pigs flying by the windows…they are smothered in a beurre blanc sauce.
Oct 23, 2009 - 12:00 pm 6. David W. Lincoln:Sarko, Klaus, Hannan, Buttiglione, just to name 4 Europeans have more gravitas than the sinister
force in the Oval Office could hope for.
I hope they are receptive to a pitch for the formation of a US government in exile that has more in common with them, as compared to the deformed souls who have their paws on the levers
Oct 23, 2009 - 12:38 pm 7. Michael Smith:of power inside the Beltway.
I hereby offer a link to a video that explains the diplomatic approach to resolving crises: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6BjF5XQ4TAo
You should watch it all the way through. It’s very informative and gets right to the heart of the logic of Obama’s approach.
Oct 23, 2009 - 1:35 pm 8. BH:Of course, blame the US, we started it all
Oct 23, 2009 - 1:48 pm 9. Roger L Simon:with the Manhattan Project. Do you remember
why we had to do the Manhattan Project, are
do you just like to blame America first.
grow up
BH, that was COMPLETE MISREADING of what I just wrote. Go back and reread. I had no intention of deriding the US in this. Moreover, if you had read my book Blacklisting Myself, you would know that my father was peripherally part of the Manhattan Project. I completely support the Manhattan Project. I am merely stating the obvious – governments (good and bad) hide what they do over nuclear weapons. They have to. End of story.
Oct 23, 2009 - 2:00 pm 10. Delia:4. Rich:
“Does anyone really believe that the mullahs will be kept bomb-free without the use of force by the good guys?”
I sure as frick don’t. These are the type of scum that will send a child or a woman to ‘ALLAH’ via self-explosions.
We have to face that we are up against a mindset that is viral and indoctrinated by evil and the only way we can ameliorate this sitch is to either educate the insane ones [impossible] or nuke the nukes [plausible but somebody gets hurt in the interim via collateral damage].
I pray that war does not need to happen. I pray for my enemies to be enlightened to the word of God, I hope for sanity to take over INsanity.
I’m scared.
Oct 23, 2009 - 7:19 pm 11. Terrye:Obama honestly seems to think he can talk these people into behaving. As if they had any desire to behave.
Oct 24, 2009 - 4:13 am 12. Paul:France. More hawkish and reality-based than the US.
The sad fact is: I am not surprised. There are really only two possible causes of this. Either Obama knows exactly what he’s doing or he has no idea what he’s doing.
Which is more frightening?
Oct 24, 2009 - 6:32 am 13. Gringo:Obama is more willing to talk to the Mullahs than he is to Fox.
Oct 24, 2009 - 9:56 pm 14. Gary Rosen:Michael Smith – your link is very reassuring and gives me renewed faith in President Obama’s ability to reach out to the Iranians.
Oct 25, 2009 - 2:47 am 15. southernsue:ditto #12.paul
Oct 26, 2009 - 8:58 am 16. Hans Moleman:A month ago, Sarkozy gave Obama a direct public rebuke.
Sarkozy: “We live in the real world, not the virtual world. And the real world expects us to take decisions.”
“President Obama dreams of a world without weapons … but right in front of us two countries are doing the exact opposite…
“Iran since 2005 has flouted five security council resolutions. North Korea has been defying council resolutions since 1993…
“I support the extended hand of the Americans, but what good has proposals for dialogue brought the international community? More uranium enrichment and declarations by the leaders of Iran to wipe a UN member state off the map,” he continued, referring to Israel. The sharp-tongued French leader even implied that Mr Obama’s resolution 1887 had used up valuable diplomatic energy. “If we have courage to impose sanctions together it will lend viability to our commitment to reduce our own weapons and to making a world without nuke weapons,” he said. Mr Sarkozy has previously called the US president’s disarmament crusade “naive.”
Think about that as our president mulls over whether to commit to the Afghan War. “…the real world expects us to take decisions.” “
Oct 27, 2009 - 1:54 pm 17. RayJ:Europeans need to watch what they wish for.
Oct 29, 2009 - 9:43 pm 18. Marc Fauconnier:Franky, I’m done with them and will do nothing if The One decides withdraw militarily.
I’m french and very proud of my president. I am afraid your Obama knows very well what he is doing. Sometimes, it looks like a sleeper agent infiltrated by hostile foreign power.
You should investigate
PS I’m serious
Oct 31, 2009 - 2:23 pm