Here we go, Obama is going to talk them out of Nukes

[JustRalph]

http://news.trend.az/index.shtml?show=news&newsid=1411031&lang=en

President Barack Obama's administration is considering sending a letter to Iran aimed at unfreezing US-Iranian relations and opening the way for face-to-face talks, the Guardian has learned, the guardian reported.

The US state department has been working on drafts of the letter since Obama was elected on November 4. The letter would be in reply to a lengthy one of congratulations sent by the Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, on November 6.

Diplomats say Obama's letter would be a symbolic gesture to mark a change in tone from the hostile one adopted by the Bush administration, which portrayed Iran as part of an "axis of evil".

It would be intended to allay the suspicions of Iran's leaders and pave the way for President Obama to engage them directly, a break with past policy. State department officials have written at least three drafts of a letter that gives assurances that Washington does not want to overthrow the Islamic regime, but merely seek a change in its behaviour.

The letter would be addressed to the Iranian people and sent directly to Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, or released as an open letter.

One draft proposal suggests Iran should compare its relatively low standard of living with that of some of its more prosperous neighbours and contemplate the benefits of losing its pariah status in the West. Although the tone is conciliatory, it also calls on Iran to end what the US calls state sponsorship of terrorism.

The letter is being considered by the new secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, as part of a sweeping review of US policy on Iran. A decision on sending it is not expected until the review is complete.

In an interview on Monday with the al-Arabiya television network, Obama hinted at a more friendly approach towards Iran.

The Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said today he was waiting patiently to see what the Obama administration comes up with. "We will listen to the statements closely, we will carefully study their actions and if there are real changes, we will welcome it," he said.

Ahmadinejad, who confirmed he will stand for election again in June, said it was unclear whether the Obama administration was intent on just a shift in tactics or was seeking fundamental change. He called on the US to apologise for its actions against Iran over the last 60 years, including US support for a 1953 coup that ousted the democratically-elected government and the US shooting down of an Iranian passenger plane in 1988.

[riskman]

I wonder what the Israeli intelligence sources have on Iran concerning nuclear material to make an atomic bomb. We know they have centrifuges to enrich uranium. Iran has ballistic missiles and they could be designing a war head for future use of nuclear bomb. Israel would love to take out the sites that are working on this. But then Iran says they are only developing for peaceful uses. Obama will get no where with Iran as long as Israel is nuclear.

[ArlJim78]

Dear Mahmoud,

We're sorry we exist. We apologize for all our evil transgressions against Iran over the past several centuries. Can you, will you forgive us?
Can't we all just get along?

Warmest regards,

your comrade,
Obambi

[LottaKash]

I wonder what he is smoking ?....Hey Iran, can't we all just go in the backroom and smoke some crack or something together, like in the days of old, you know "the ole' peacepipe" angle....:jump:

best,

[ddog]

give Iran a couple of nukes, then see how brave they are.

You really think they want the annihilation of their country and way of life to knock off Isreal?

easy to talk when you can't back it up.

plus for you endtimers , don't they HAVE to get them.

cheers.

[Tom]

With this idiot out there embarrassing our country, how long before the next attack, and the next, and the next?
This moron looks like complete clown to the terrorists.

[Hank]

With this idiot out there embarrassing our country, how long before the next attack, and the next, and the next?
This moron looks like complete clown to the terrorists.

Relax Tom, Bush is out of office.

[hcap]

With this idiot out there embarrassing our country, how long before the next attack, and the next, and the next?
This moron looks like complete clown to the terrorists.It's a good thing terrorists don;t read and post here on off topic. Oh how they would love your comments. Bin laden wanted to draw us into a stalled failed occupation in the ME. He succeeded with rhetoric like yours fanning the flames ignited by rope-a-dope victim, your glorious leader, George W. Churchill.

[prospector]

With this idiot out there embarrassing our country, how long before the next attack, and the next, and the next?
This moron looks like complete clown to the terrorists.
no need to attack, just walk thru the front door and be welcomed..

[hcap]

Bush was talking to the Iranians before Obama said he would. Why do you guys always imply the Chamberlain talking to Hitler crap?

From Foreign Policy: Recent U.S.-Iran nuclear talks involved key officials:

Over the past year, our sources confirmed, former Defense Secretary William Perry and a group of high-level U.S. nuclear nonproliferation specialists and U.S. experts on Iran held a series of meetings in European cities with Iranian officials under the auspices of the Pugwash group. (Pugwash, a group founded in 1957 by an international group of scientists, received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1995 for advocating for the elimination of nuclear weapons.) Perry served as a member of the Obama campaign's national security working group.

Sources familiar with the meetings suggest they may be coming to light now via deliberate leaks to the Iranian media, by jockeying Iranian political power players trying to maneuver for advantage amid a shifting Washington-Tehran dynamic and their own upcoming elections in June. Among the Iranian officials who attended the Pugwash dialogues, the Cable has learned, was Ali Asghar Soltanieh, the Iranian ambassador and permanent representative to the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna.

Patrick Clawson, director of research at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, described Soltanieh as a technocrat whose presence at the Pugwash dialogue was significant. "He matters because when he writes these reports back to the regime, they will not be thrown in the trash," Clawson said. "They will be looked at." [...]


Along with reports that the State Department is drafting a letter to the Iranian leadership and U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Susan Rice's comments this week that the United States will pursue direct diplomacy with Iran, the Obama administration is undertaking an intensive policy review toward Iran even as it gets its new team members into place.

"I am seeing actions that seem to be really quite different," says Trita Parsi, president of the National Iranian American Council, a Washington group that promotes U.S. engagement with Iran. "Obama was not president for even 20 minutes when he said ‘mutual respect.' That is an Iranian buzz word. No one in the Middle East uses that more than Iran." ...

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I think many realists know there are no military solutions to the Iran problem and the rest of the ME. Grow up guys and stop playing with bombs. Cowboys and Indians does not translate into the 21st century. Bush proved that.

[ArlJim78]

the Chamberlain/Hitler crap as you call it gets mentioned because it is of great importance who is doing the talking for your side, not so much that you have talks or not.

You don't want a fuzzy-headed do-gooder out to make himself look good by sealing some phoney unenforceable agreement. You want someone who has the interests of the US front and center, and not someone who equates popularity with strength. Obama talks about making the US popular and respected in the world again, as if those are worthy goals in and of themselves. those are simply by-products that will happen automatically whenever we do the right things.

you need a person who deals from a postion of strength and resolve, these people don't respect someone who does not appear strong, and Obama simply does not appear strong. Everyone knows he's a media sensation with no experience and a big ego. talking and finding common ground is possible, but it has to be guided by clear thinking individuals who understand the true nature of some of these evil regimes. Bush was no genius, but he understood some of these simple things and that is why popular or not he pursued certain objectives that he felt helped to make the US safe.
Will having the world like us more make us safer?

[hcap]

Bush took a criminal terrorist act and turned it into a false "War on Terror"
International police action and intel is what will control individual acts of terrorism. Iran is a different case than 911. International diplomacy and willingness to compromise is what is needed. Bush destroyed normal channels of diplomacy early on, and only later after Darth Vader Dick and the rest of the neocons lost their grip on him did he wise up and give more credence to the realists. As much as I rail on George, I did see some change towards the end. He had no choice.

The rise of Hitler and the Nazis is a very poor analogy with Iran. Hitler controlled the largest war machine, the largest industrial base in Europe in the 1930's. Iran is still a third world country with a population sympathetic to much of western culture.

The way to stability is diplomacy. One of the refreshing things of the Obama administration is a willingness to talk to enemies, and use both a stick and carrots to try to solve problems. There is no Black vs White, Cowboys and Indians on the world stage. We simultaneously dealt with the Soviets and China with the carrot and stick approach. We can do it again. That's what works. I see no evidence Obama is a Chamberlain

[dav4463]

How can you reason with those who are fighting a holy war? How do you reason with someone who is willing to die if it means taking you with them? You can't. These are people that would sooner chop your head off than say hello. They hate us. Why can't Obama realize that simple fact?

[JustRalph]

Bush took a criminal terrorist act and turned it into a false "War on Terror"

I don't get it. This is a point of contention. How was it a criminal act? It was a foreign organization attacking our country (you could argue a foreign country, but which one?) treating it only as a criminal act doesn't stop the training camps around the world......it just locks up the perpetrators, and sometimes fails at that. It was an act of war.......... that's the only sane way to look at it. Clinton made the mistake of looking at it as a criminal prosection. He locked up a blind sheik and then 9=11 still happens.........there is more to it than a criminal act. These people aren't subject to our laws......... come on?

[Tom]

This is why we will be hit again.....dems = failure on national security. Every time. Dems are big talkers and it ends there. And the terrorists know we have a prez and congress with no balls. Just big mouths.

[JustRalph]

AmaDinnerJacket tells Obama he is a passive loser :lol:

This is great.........

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=CNG.073ba2ee2f1f00668848a4655420fed c.411&show_article=1

In response, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad launched a fresh tirade against the United States, demanding an apology for its "crimes" against Iran and saying he expected "deep and fundamental" change from Obama.

Iranian politicians frequently refer to the US administration as the "global arrogance", "domineering power" and "Great Satan".

Tensions with the United States have soared over Iran's nuclear drive and Ahmadinejad's vitriolic verbal attacks against Washington's close regional ally Israel.

Former US president George W. Bush refused to hold talks with the Islamic republic -- which he dubbed part of an "axis of evil" -- unless it suspended uranium enrichment, and never took a military option to thwart Tehran's atomic drive off the table.

[Tom]

Ralph, the new Axis of Evil: Obama, Reid, Pelosi.

[cj's dad]

Dear Mahmoud,

We're sorry we exist. We apologize for all our evil transgressions against Iran over the past several centuries. Can you, will you forgive us?
Can't we all just get along?

Warmest regards,

your comrade,
Obambi

He said the US has become a "passive" nation. Thanks BO

[ArlJim78]

He said the US has become a "passive" nation. Thanks BO
its pains me to say it, but he's right. we have become passive.

BO thought if he just told them about how he has Muslim relatives and that he wants to sit down without preconditions that all of them would roll over and become our friend.

[JustRalph]

Don't worry, Obama's going to hook him up with some really good stuff from Kenya...................