In a USA Today column published three hours ago, Sarah Palin called on the Obama administration to start putting some teeth into its tough rhetoric on Iran. Noting that the mullahcracy’s nuclear-arms race has given Barack Obama a rare moment of unity in Southwest Asia as the various Arab governments all want to see American leadership in stopping Iran, Palin calls for a return to a proven strategy from the Cold War:
Iran continues to defy the international community in its drive to acquire nuclear weapons. Arab leaders in the region rightly fear a nuclear-armed Iran. We suspected this before, but now we know for sure because of leaked diplomatic cables. King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia “frequently exhorted the U.S. to attack Iran to put an end to its nuclear weapons program,” according to these communications. Officials from Jordan said the Iranian nuclear program should be stopped by any means necessary. Officials from the United Arab Emirates and Egypt saw Iran as evil, an “existential threat” and a sponsor of terrorism. If Iran isn’t stopped from obtaining nuclear weapons, it could trigger a regional nuclear arms race in which these countries would seek their own nuclear weapons to protect themselves. …
But we also need to encourage a positive vision for Iran. Iran is not condemned to live under the totalitarian inheritance of the Ayatollah Khomeini forever. There is an alternative — an Iran where human rights are respected, where women are not subjugated, where terrorist groups are not supported and neighbors are not threatened. A peaceful, democratic Iran should be everyone’s goal. There are many hopeful signs inside Iran that reveal the Iranian people’s desire for this peaceful, democratic future. We must encourage their voices.
When the brave people of Iran take to the streets in defiance of their unelected dictatorship, they must know that we in the free world stand with them. When the women of Iran rise up to demand their rights, they must know that we women of the free world who enjoy the rights won for us by our suffragist foremothers stand with our sisters there. When Iranians demand freedom of religion, freedom of conscience and freedom to simply live their lives as they choose without persecution, we in the free world must stand with them.
We can start by supporting them with diplomacy and things such as radio broadcasting, just as we did with those who suffered under the former Soviet Empire. Most of all, we should support them with confidence in the rightness of the ideals of liberty and justice.
The appearance of disinterest displayed by Barack Obama and his administration to the uprising in the summer of 2009 was perhaps one of the most disappointing moments in a thoroughly disappointing presidency. It took Obama weeks to offer any kind of rhetorical support, a delay that was not lost on people in the region. The message came through clearly that Obama had more interest in working with the entrenched power of the status quo than to pursue real reform in the region, even when the power in question is inexorably opposed to the US.
Palin also calls on Obama to get Russia on board with sanctions against Iran. The Obama administration hinted they had that agreement when they caved on missile defense in eastern Europe, which shocked and angered our allies in Poland and the Czech Republic, which remember all too well Russian aggression and the value of their promises. Instead, Russia continued to promote its own commercial interests in Iran, and now the White House hasn’t even bothered to hint that the Russians will cut off their money stream in exchange for the START treaty. Obama had a golden opportunity to force cooperation with the Russians and tossed it aside in his own pursuit of goals that belong more to the 1980s than to this point in time.
We cannot pretend that the mullahs will willingly trade off a nuclear weapon for a little friendship. They don’t want our friendship, a position they have made abundantly clear through six American administrations, starting with Jimmy Carter and current with the Obama White House. The only way in which we can ensure that the mullahs don’t get a nuke is to get the mullahs out of power and replace it with a democratization movement. The Iranian people showed us that they want an end to the dictatorship of the ayatollahs, but we didn’t bother to acknowledge it when it mattered. That has to change, and as soon as possible.
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