Obama: Bush Strategy Strengthened Iran

[Omaha Steve]

http://apnews.excite.com/article/20070303/D8NKP9GG0.html

Obama: Bush Strategy Strengthened Iran
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Mar 3, 10:30 AM (ET)

By DEANNA BELLANDI

CHICAGO (AP) - Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama blamed Bush administration failings in Iraq for strengthening the strategic position of Iran, which he says must be stopped from acquiring nuclear weapons.

The Illinois senator said Friday that means "direct engagement" with Iran similar to the meetings with the Soviet Union at the height of the Cold War.

"One of the most profound consequences of the administration's failed strategy in Iraq has been to strengthen Iran's strategic position; reduce U.S. credibility and influence in the region; and place Israel and other nations friendly to the United States in greater peril," Obama told the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the pro-Israel lobbying group.


Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., speaks to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee Friday, March 2, 2007, in Chicago. Obama blamed Bush Administration failings in Iraq for strengthening the strategic position of Iran, which he says must be stopped from acquiring nuclear weapons. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)

The Bush administration recently altered its position, with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice saying this week that the U.S. is willing to talk to Iran on security in Iraq.

FULL story at link.

[ohio2007]

1. The majority has been given power and is going to rule in Iraq

It's a safe bet their 75-80 % Shia majority democracy will not look at all like ours.
If they are going to align with a Shia majority in Iran, they will still be a minority in the Religion of Islam.

[leftchick]

2. Nice job of warmongering for Israel

the AIPACers eat this shit up while US foreign policy suffers with this sort of rhetoric. I love how Kucinich does not feel the need to suck up to them, the worst of lobby groups.

<snip>

Obama also emphasized in his speech his commitment to protecting the security of Israel, which he called "our strongest ally in the region and its only established democracy."

"Our job is to renew the United States' efforts to ... help Israel achieve peace with its neighbors while remaining vigilant against those who do not share that vision," Obama said.

The speech was the second time in recent months that Obama has formally addressed foreign policy in his hometown of Chicago. In November, Obama called for a reduction of U.S. forces in Iraq at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs.

But Obama focused on Iran Friday, calling President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's regime "a threat to all of us."

A member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Obama said the world - not just the United States - must stop Iran's uranium enrichment program.

"While we should take no option, including military action, off the table, sustained and aggressive diplomacy combined with tough sanctions should be our primary means to prevent Iran from building nuclear weapons," Obama said.

[BearSquirrel2]

3. Mistake ...

This is a big mistake on Obama's part. Iran is not a nuclear boogeyman. They are not that dangerous and are on the verge of full Democracy if we would only stop undermining those in Iran who favor closer ties with the West by calling them out.

[ohio2007]

4. On the verge of full Democracy ? Sean Penn covered presidential elections in Iran

He didn't exactly come back preaching to the mass media virtues of how the mullahs islamic state managed to put in power a candidate that originally finished a distant third in a first round ballot system.

[BearSquirrel2]

6. This is what I am saying ...

Iran is not a country of crazy mullahs. It is a country of sane people who yearn to be free of the shackles imposed upon them by the mullahs. There are people in Iran who advocate for more Western style reforms. And every time some yahoo in the US uses Iran to score domestic political points, they undermine the advocates a free and fair elections in Iran.

Sure talk about the mullahs and Amidemejab, but don't call the entire nation a threat to peace. All that does is piss people off of give credence to the words of some crusty old fundamentalist clerics.

[ohio2007]

9. Here is a look inside Iran today

With unemployment around 35%, just imagine what the percentage of unemployed citizens under the age of 30 must be.

As you can see, the Iranians also mock their own president;



http://www.iranfocus.com/modules/news/article.php?storyid=10349

[TwilightGardener]

5. He got it right...

He needs to talk tough on Iran if he wants to win the general against Rudy McRomney. Don't forget that people are generally fearful and tend to believe that the GOPers will make them safer. I happen to agree with him--engage, but use sanctions as necessary. They can't be allowed to develop a nuke program.

[BearSquirrel2]

8. We're at war with ...

We're at ware with Iranasia, we've always been at war with Iranasia. Iranasia is our friend, they've always been our friend. We're at war with Iraqasia. We've always been at war with Iraqasia.

If we wish to stop the cycle of presidential stupidity we have to stop feeding freshly butchered armageddon meat to the masses. We're at war in Iraq because we overblew Saddam Hussein's capabilities. We're at war in Iraq because it was a convenient political device to turn attention elsewhere and make people scared about something extraordinarily unlikely. All this Iran baiting sounds EXACTLY like the rhetoric running up to the Iraq war. They fooled me once, shame on them. I won't be fooled again. This Iran stuff is a bullshit diversion to get us out of the frying pan of Iraq and straight in the fryer of Iran.

I personally don't want to be hearing a President O'Bama talking about how he didn't know how the intelligence could have been so wrong. I think what O'Bama is doing right now is a stupid "ME TOO" campaign tactic that I previously believed he was above. There was a glimmer of hope there ... then this. Russ Feingold, please get involved!!!!

Even if Iran is a threat we don't have a lot options. Option one is we ignore it. Option two is we do a complete mobilization because we aren't going to get away with bombing Iran without them going full scale into Iraq and setting up a client state. All the while Syria and Jordan will be playing their own games. Anyone willing to bomb Iran better be willing to draft a million young Americans into military service because thats what its going to take to get the oil flowing again after the middle east explodes into a general civil war between Shiites and Sunnis.

Sometimes a slimy rotten piece of garbage could be the pin holding everything together. That rotten slimy piece of crap was Saddam Hussein. Yeah he was an genocidal asshole. But if you believe the Lancet mortality study, Iraq under Paul Bremer was far worse. In retrospect it turns out that leaving that slimy piece of crap in place to keep the floodgates of violence from bursting open probably would have been a good thing.

I do know this, at the point when Iranian troops kill American soldiers an American president would have ZERO choice but to go all in with an invasion. Then we'll have to giant hornets nest to carry on our shoulders without any hope of escaping for a generation.

[rocktivity]

7. You see, Hillary?

Obama's not wasting time picking on YOU!

:applause:
rocknation