By John Batchelor
closeAuthor: John Batchelor
Name: John Batchelor
Email: susanunpc@gmail.com
Site: http://johnbatchelorshow.com/
About: See Authors Posts (489) on April 14, 2009 at 1:10 PM in Current Affairs
Obama Administration Struggles With Language.
The long argument against the Tehran regime will have successes. Not now. M. Ahmadinejad’s provocative visit last week to the Isfahan nuclear energy facility was not a good day for the United States. The Tehran boast that it has up to seven thousand centrifuges in operation is well past any redline identified over the years by the UN watchdog the IAEA. The day of reckoning was last week. In a surprising response from Washington, there is a fresh gossipy policy report in the NYT that the Obama team is “brainstorming” new diplomatic words and definitions in order to find a way not to confront Tehran over its nuke weapons programs. The word “appeasement” is unattractive. More useful is the word “accommodation.”
A review of Iran policy that Mr. Obama ordered after taking office is still under way, and aides say it is not clear how long he would be willing to allow Iran to continue its fuel production, and at what pace. But European officials said that in talks with Mr. Obama and his aides during his trip to Europe, there was agreement that Iran would not accept the kind of immediate shutdown of its facilities that the Bush administration had demanded….
“Our goal remains exactly what it has been in the U.N. resolutions: suspension,” one senior administration official said. Another official cautioned that “we are still at the brainstorming level” and said the terms of an opening proposal to Iran were still being debated.
What Happens Next.
Tehran is a predator and a sneak. When the Americans advance, Tehran plays victim. When the Americans retreat, Tehran boasts and provokes. What will follow from the Obama team opening with concessions is that Tehran will grow aggressive and cocky. We have seen this before. The Devils in November, 1934 were craven and cock-sure. Chancellor Adolf Hitler celebrated his 1923 so-called Beer Hall Putsch with much vain publicity in the foreign newspapers. Hitler spoke on the same spot where he had called for a new Reich eleven years before, and he boasted to the reporters that it was not true that he had ducked for cover under the gunfire of the police, rather he had fallen while trying to help an invalid nearby. Hitler also announced the distribution of half a million Reichmarks to the widows and children of deceased Nazi party fellows. Applause. On the same page, there was a preliminary announcement of an alliance between Hitler’s Nazi dominated government in Germany and Mussolini’s Fascist dominated government in Italy. Few were fooled other than the appeasers in the Stanley Baldwin government at London and the FDR government in Washington. The NYT of 1934 was hesitant. Side by side with Hitler’s self-promotion and hints of the Mussolini cunning was a lengthy piece about the “Non-Sectarian Anti-Nazi League.” The League believed it was necessary to emphasize that it was not only made up of Jews. Everyone knew the threat, the League announced. Everyone understood that Hitler was not going to behave. The League called for boycotts of and sanctions on Germany. The League pleaded for the democracies to confront Hitler’s villainy. The Nazi abuse against the Jews and invalids and gypsies and communists and dissenters in Germany was constant and merciless. The threats and plots against Germany’s neighbors were obvious, most especially Austria, Czechoslovakia, France. Hitler claimed that he was righting the wrongs of the Versailles Treaty. London, Paris and Washington maintained that if they could satisfy Hitler’s demands, then the peace would hold. No one had stomach for war. The public would not permit belligerent words in the parliaments. The horror of the First War was still fresh. London, Paris and Washington had to find a peaceful way. The worldwide economy was in collapse. There had to be a reasonable settlement. London, Paris and Washington were still brainstorming. The word “appeasement” was unattractive. More useful was the word “accommodation.” It was 1934. Diplomacy bought two more years.
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