Okay, I know it’s all about change and happiness and goodness and yummy Obamaness but sometimes you have to look at things with a certain cynicism. See, hindsight is 20/20 but, knowing that, can we just … maybe … try a little harder in the present?
For instance, Iran.
Sure, sure, their leader is not entirely my favourite person in the world but why are we egging him on? How about engaging in some dialogue and diplomacy? It SEEMS on the surface that that’s what is being done. I still get the feeling he’s being set up as the next Saddam. You know, give him enough rope and then we can hang him.
http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2009/09/vp-biden-downplays-missile-threat-to-us-from-iran.html
In Baghdad today, Vice President Joe Biden seemed to downplay the threat of an Iranian missile hitting the U.S.
“I think we are fully capable and secure dealing with any present or future potential Iranian threat,” Biden told CNN.
“The whole purpose of this exercise we are undertaking is to diminish the prospect of the Iranians destabilizing that region in the world,” Biden said. “I am less concerned — much less concerned — about the Iranian potential. They have no potential at this moment, they have no capacity to launch a missile at the United States of America.”
Asked about the Vice President’s statement, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said, “don’t think anybody has sugarcoated the notion that we believe that their illicit nuclear program poses great security concerns for us and for many…in the international community. I think what Vice President Biden was talking about was exactly the renewed and updated intelligence assessment that led the very same people in 2006 to recommend, one, architecture and configuration, two, based on that updated intelligence, recommend to the president something different in 2009, again, partly based on capability and technology.”
I understand that tactically there are facts about Iran’s threat to the United States. Yet, it still sounds vaguely like Biden’s saying, “Hey, pipsqueak, you’re too much of a small-fry to be a threat.” The tone of a statement makes all the difference between simple dissemination and understated goading.
It’s like a hockey game where you keep chip-blocking and bad-mouthing a guy when the ref’s not looking. Then, when the frustrated guy finally take a swing, he looks like the bad guy and (if you play it right) gets the bigger penalty. Is the fuzzy-wuzzy Obama administration setting up for a 2-minute power play against Team Iran?
I don’t know, but I get the feeling this all has playoff implications.
