Monday, November 5, 2007

Foreign Policy Sanity

From Obama regarding Iran:

Take notice: on Iran, at least, Obama is speaking a new kind of language for mainstream American politics. For nearly 30 years since the Iranian revolution kicked out a shah who had been installed by the CIA, American leaders have been too timid to engage in a constructive dialogue with Iran. That includes Hillary's husband, whose curiosity was aroused by the moderate Khatami but failed to rise to the challenge of how to achieve a diplomatic opening for the good of both countries. Now Obama says he's willing to go to Iran to talk without preconditions, reward Iran with positive changes in behavior and demonstrate that the U.S. is not hellbent on regime change.


It's exactly for reasons like this that I have become an Obama supporter. He's not spouting the same tired rhetoric that other pols are. We need a desperate change in our foreign policy tactics after the current administration has destroyed our standing worldwide. I don't see any other candidate (save maybe Paul) being able or willing to make the necessary changes.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

How much do we legitimize actions like the one cited here (and the hundreds that have been reported like it) when we sit down to the table with a guy like Ahmadinejad?

I think Obama's intentions are decent, but realistically he's positioning himself for an election, which means the rhetoric about foreign policy, while it sounds good, is not nearly as simplistic or practical as he makes it sound.