Obama's Muslim Outreach Fails First Test

Only an American administration headed by an utterly arrogant and naive ideologue could have asserted that the Iranian elections were characterized by a "robust debate" which will advance the U.S.'s ability to engage Iran in "new ways." This assertion rings hollow not just because the administration's preferred candidate lost in a rigged election. Even if the so-called "reformist" Mir Hossein Mousavi had won he would have likely followed the party line (and there is only one party in Teheran) laid out by the mullahs, the real bosses of Iran.

Of course Mousavi did not win, and the fact that Team Obama thought he could betrays either a stunning failure of intelligence vis-a-vis events in Iran or a shocking inability to understand the world as it really is. More than likely it wasn't the intelligence that was faulty, it was the way it was massaged by the utopians who populate the State Department and the White House's National Security Council. Using the Left's own derisive characterization of the Bush administration's case for war against Iraq, the Obamacons politicized the intelligence.

Notwithstanding the outcome of the Iranian election (which the nutty Mahmoud Ahmadinejad won by an apparent landslide), Obama's faux-visionary "Hope and Change" routine has morphed pathetically into "Hope for Change." Obama gives a speech in Cairo 10 days ago in which he hails Islam's "tolerance" and its indispensable contributions to humanity that his minions in government and the media hope will result in sweeping change throughout the Muslim world. (I am a little fuzzy on the need for all this change when according to Obama all is fine and dandy in Islam). This is wishing against the evidence that mere words (as long as they are Obama's) can change the directional flow of human nature and thus change the course of human events to Obama's liking.

If the election results were not a definitive rebuke to those who engage in such wishful thinking, then the events immediately following should be. According to reports, "by Saturday afternoon, riot police and Revolutionary Guards thugs were clashing with thousands of protesters who surged onto the streets of Tehran after their defeated hero, Mousavi, said he strongly protests 'the many obvious violations that could lead to tyranny in Iran.' The Iranian government has blocked Mousavi's ability to communicate to his supporter via text messaging and has refused to allow him access to Iranian TV. Even the "BBC," the Left-leaning British government controlled media, reported that their satellite has been jammed by the Iranians, preventing them from transmitting to its Persian and Middle east viewers the true state of affairs in post-election Iran.

When asked about such irregularities, including the blocking of the publication of allegations of election fraud by Mousavi's house newspaper, Ahmadinejad abjured his questioner not to worry about such things as press freedoms. ""Newspapers come and go and reappear. Don't worry about it."

Perhaps this is the Iranian regime's understanding of "robust debate." And yet it is unlikely that any of these gross displays of power and intimidation will in any way dissuade Obama from attempting to "dialogue" with the rogue regime.

And all of this comes at a time when Iran threatens Israel daily with nuclear destruction while North Korea seems determined to ratchet up the pressure on the Obama administration by threatening a nuclear confrontation if Obama enforces the U.N. Security Council's sanctions against the country. It is no coincidence that America's enemies are probing our new president for weakness, just as V.P. Biden said they would. It is apparent to them that President Obama has no stomach for standing up to those who would threaten us.

It is becoming increasing obvious that Obama is as clueless when it comes to the nature of dictatorial regimes (other than his own, at least) as he is when it comes to fiscal and economic policy. In either case such detachment from reality is dangerous. But with regard to our dealings with apocalyptic regimes like Iran and North Korea, Obama's flight from reality can be downright catastrophic.