Obama and the return of the chicken hawks
Such an unlikely commentator as the paleo-conservative curmudgeon, Pat Buchanan, has said something quite wise in defense of US president Barack Obama's policy of non-interference in the internal affairs of Iran:
In his analysis of the futility of international pressure on the Ayatollahs he is seconded by the Israeli newspaper Haaretz:
It is impossible to believe a denunciation of the regime by Obama will cause it to stay its hand if it believes its power is imperiled. But it is certain that if Obama denounces Tehran, those demonstrators will be portrayed as dupes and agents of America before and after they meet their fate.Buchanan has defined the situation with precision. when he speaks of "moral heroism at other people's expense.
If standing up and denouncing the Ayatollah and Ahmadinejad from 7,000 miles away is moral heroism, it is moral heroism at other people's expense.
In his analysis of the futility of international pressure on the Ayatollahs he is seconded by the Israeli newspaper Haaretz:
One could assume that any country with a "supreme leader" whose power is handed down by God probably has a regime that doesn't care about the beating they'll take on Facebook forums.But, if perchance I give the impression that Buchanan and Haaretz -- strange bedfellows if ever there were -- are reading off the same page, I should quote the closing lines of the Haaretz article which are a thinly veiled invitation to war:
Pray for the Iranian people, because it will take much more than a handful of martyrs and an endless stream of online flotsam to set them free.Who exactly are Haaretz suggesting should bell the cat and "set them free"?
