Broadcast Diplomacy
Category: Dr. Mike Evans, Featured Headlines, Iran, J.W.N. Exclusives, Middle East News, Special Feature, U.S. News
President Barack Obama spoke directly to the Iranian people recently in an endeavor to engage that country in direct talks. I believe he is making a terrible mistake. It appears he is attempting to appease the fanatical leaders in that rogue nation in the same way Jimmy Carter did. Radical Islamic terrorists worldwide will surely interpret this as a sign of fear and weakness on the part of our new commander-in-chief. It could embolden them to strike America yet again.
Mr. Obama is following the pattern set by Jimmy Carter when the former president abandoned long-time ally Shah Reza Pahlavi and engaged Ayatollah Khomeini in covert talks while the leader of the Islamic revolution was ensconced in Paris in 1979. Carter opened a “disavowable” channel of communication through contacts in the U.S. in an effort to use diplomacy to build bridges with the Ayatollah’s revolutionary movement in Iran. The only thing Carter created was a 444-day living hell for fifty-two American hostages held captive by Iranian terrorists, not to mention his loss of a second term as president. He was ultimately forced to distribute $7.9 billion to the Iranians from the Federal Reserve through a series of bank transactions on the day of Ronald Reagan’s inauguration. He signed an Algiers Accord that prevented the U.S. from future intervention in Iranian affairs, and kept the hostages from suing for reparations.
Our high-tech, twenty-first century president followed his nationwide appearance on late night television’s Jay Leno Show to push his stimulus package to Americans with a YouTube and White House website broadcast offering a “new day” to the Iranian people. How many Iranians do you suppose were gathered around their flat-screen computer monitors waiting with bated breath to hear the forty-fourth president offer his message of appeasement?
Just as Jimmy Carter attempted to look Rooseveltian by donning a cardigan for a fireside chat directed at the American people, so Mr. Obama has adopted the modern technical tools of the trade in order to get his message across to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his radical cohorts. His aim was to engage the Iranian people; only time will determine if he was successful, or if he, like Mr. Carter has only broadcast his weakness rather than strength. And, we must note that many sites such as YouTube are blocked from broadcast in Iran. It will likely not be as effective a tool as was Khomeini’s use of old-fashioned cassette tapes to infuse the Iranians with revolution.
The liberal Mr. Obama was joined in his pursuit by the liberal Israeli president, Shimon Peres. Each man appealed to the nobler of the Iranians, which most certainly does not include the likes of the fanatical Ahmadinejad and supreme religious leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei who continues to call Israel a “cancerous tumor” that is on the verge of collapse and has called for its destruction.
Unfortunately for President Obama, the Iranians have a long history with the United States, and an even longer memory. Ahmadinejad is now engaged in making his list of injustices perpetrated by the United States on the poor, mistreated country of Iran. Said the diminutive Iranian president, “We cannot simply forget what the U.S. did to our nation. They need to perceive what wrong orientation they had and make serious efforts to make up for it.”
The real truth is that such slogans as “Death to America” can still be heard floating over those amassed for Friday prayers in Tehran. Iran turned a blind eye while many of the nineteen 9/11 perpetrators crossed its territory on their way to target Americans with death and destruction. It has provided IEDs by the truckload to be used against our troops in Iraq. But of course, no one bothered to mention those little facts.
The sobering question is, “How far will President Obama go to appease the Iranians?” One can only hope he will not adopt the tactics used by Mr. Carter who ultimately uncorked the bottle which held the genii of terrorism, and unleashed it on an unsuspecting world.
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Michael D. Evans, a #1 New York Times bestselling author, is the author of Jimmy Carter: The Liberal Left and World Chaos. A television special based on the book is currently being produced (www.carterbooktv.com).
