President Ahmadinejad, speaking in Kermanshah, responds to Obama's desire for change with demands that the U.S. end its military presence everywhere in the world outside the borders of the United States, and cease any support for Israel "rootless, uncultured, illegal, phony, murderous, killer of women and children, killers of babies"
I'm glad we have a good faith negotiating partner who tries to understand the other party like Alan wants us to do with them.
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It is pretty clear from my comments, and long a part of my opinion, that we should ignore the Iranian President and take our message directly to the Iranian people, so that they will elect a leader more inclined to work with us on June 12th.
We apologized for Mohammad Khatami's inability to bring reform to Iran by saying the President does not have real power in Iran. Yet, some act as if his successor were a dictator. Khameini is smart enough to gauge public attitudes by their votes and to respond accordingly. He must to hold on to power. So, our path to our objectives goes through the Iranian voters.
I do not expect good behavior from Ahmadinejad. I expect him to go away. We should shape the environment in a way to ensure that happens. President Obama is already doing so by reaching out to the Iranian voters. That is exactly what he should be doing.
You really think that the President of Iran is in charge? The people can elected a leader, but that is irrelevant. The Supreme Council has the power. To the extent that an elected leader can create a revolution to overthrow the current theocracy, then that matters.
Also, which is it? Are the Iranian people responsible for the government as this comment seems to imply? Or is it the US' fault because of 1953?
Secondly, why must the US be sensitive to Iranian concerns, but you have no corresponding expectation of the Iranian government.
Khameini leads the Supreme Council, of course. To avoid social unrest, he has to keep Iranian society oppressed or happy. Watching Head Wind on Sunday, it became clear that happy is his only choice. Khatami is likely to run for President again. (Ahmadinejad also just announced his intentions, but economic problems probably rule out his reelection.) The restoration of Khatami to the Presidency will put pressure on Khameini as will a non-threatening approach from us.
I have already explained in detail how the US contributed to the formation of the current government in another post. I have also argued that it is up to the Iranians to work their way through this to a government that suits their needs and desires. We helped get them into this mess, we can only help get them out.
We will be sensitive to Iranian concerns while Ahmadinejad will remain insensitive to ours because we are smarter, more humane, and ultimately more successful than he. This is the change that comes from seeing Bush leave.
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