Right now would be a good time for President Obama to install somegigantic fans outside the White House so he can blow away all the hot aircoming from critics who think he's wimping out on the Iranian electionconflict.
Obama has called for President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his government to"stop all violent and unjust actions" against protesters, but some membersof Congress want to hear much tougher talk.
Over the weekend Senator Lindsay Graham said Obama has been "timid andpassive" in his public statements about the situation. So here we go again."Timid" is another word for "weak" and Republicans have been accusingDemocrats of being weak and soft on foreign policy for decades.
My personal favorite example of this tactic occurred during the 1952presidential campaign when Richard Nixon described Adlai Stevenson as a manwith "a Ph.D from Dean Acheson's cowardly college of communist containment."Weak people are cowards and cowards are losers, right?
Note to Senator Graham: If you really want to get some traction withthis tactic you should consider your own updated version of the Nixonian academicinvention. How about "Barack Obama's Useless University for ExtremistEnablers?" Run that up the flagpole and see who salutes.
For everyone else who thinks the US needs to talk tough and "send amessage" my question is: What is all the tough talk supposed to accomplish?I'm pretty sure President Ahmadinejad isn't going to suddenly slap hisforehead and exclaim, "Oh my gosh! Look what the Americans are saying! Ibetter get moving right now and schedule a new election so they'll cool down!"
Lindsay Graham apparently thinks tough talk from America will beappreciated by Iranians who oppose the current government. Last weekend healso said, "The young men and women taking to the streets in Tehran need oursupport. They are basically asking us to speak up for them."
Senator, are you sure about that? Given the amount of unpleasantpolitical baggage this country has piled up in Iran during the past sixtyyears, pumping out lots of tough talk in favor of the protesters would begiving Ahmadinejad more fuel to fire up his supporters.
"Look!" he'll say, "the people who oppose me are getting help from theGreat Satan, the country that supported Iraq in our long war, and saidnothing when Saddam used chemical weapons against us. The Americans havedone this before. They toppled Mosaddeq in 1953 and put the Shah back onhis throne, and now they want to topple me!"
Barack Obama knows all about this kind of international blowback. Ithappened to him back in April 2008 when Ahmed Yousef, a political advisor toHamas, told a New York radio station that "we like Mr. Obama."
The John McCain campaign quickly sent out an e-mail saying Obama'sforeign policy plans "have won him praise from Hamas leaders."Conservative bloggers and talk show hosts trumpeted the idea that Obama wasenthusiastically supported by tyrants and terrorists around the world.
Do you think that's an unfair comparison? I'm sure there are people whowould say the US has a right to lecture other countries on their internalaffairs because we're the leader of the free world, and it's our globalobligation to stand up on behalf of democratic principals and fairelections.
This argument would also be very unwise to use against PresidentAhmadinejad because he could immediately toss it back in our faces bysaying, "Wait! Maybe our election wasn't perfect, but at least we had one.If you Americans are so committed to promoting democracy in this region, whydon't you go put some heat on Saudi Arabia? They didn't have elections ofany kind until 2005, and those were just for local councils, and last monththe government announced the 2009 local elections were being pushed back atleast two more years. What's up with that?"
Is anyone in the House or Senate willing to get tough with King Abdullahand send him a strong message? Who wants to introduce a resolution tellingthe king he needs to shape up and get the next round of municipal votingunderway without further delay? Since Saudi Arabia is a longtime ally andwe depend on the oceans of oil they sell us, I have a strong feeling no suchresolution will be voted on anytime soon.
We just finished eight years with a president who loved to swagger andsay things like "Bring 'em on" and "Absolutely we're winning." Thosestatements came back to haunt George W. Bush.
The best message President Obama can send out to the country right nowis this: we're facing a number of serious foreign policy issues in the middleeast and Asia, talking tough and declaring ultimatums will not help resolveany of them, and perhaps most important of all--avoiding harsh rhetoric andempty posturing in dealing with our adversaries is absolutely not a sign ofweakness, timidity, or appeasement.