Senator Obama Needs To Get A Grip

Senator B.H. Obama, also known as the Nice Young Man From Chicago, stands accused of being "naive" by the Republican all-but-official nominee, Senator John McCain, dubbed by some as "Bush II." Now the Geek well understands that politics is often all about name calling.

Still, McCain's use of the word "naive" as a description of the Nice Young Man From Chicago may not be a simple case of politics as usual. True, the Republican was speaking before an audience with a bad case of tunnel vision, The American-Israeli Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) when he lambasted Obama. See. http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/06/02/mccain.aipac/.

Central to the McCain air strike was Obama's repeated statement of willingness to hold a face-to-face with Iranian President Ahmedinejad. Without preconditions.

The Arizona senator said first, "We hear talk of a meeting with the Iranian leadership offered up as if it were some sudden inspiration, a bold new idea that somehow nobody has ever thought of before."

McCain added, "Yet it's hard to see what such a summit with [Iranian] President [Mahmoud] Ahmedinejad would actually gain, except an earful of anti-Semitic rants, and a worldwide audience for a man who denies one Holocaust and talks before frenzied crowds about starting another."

A sharply pointed observation. But, it could have been far more pointed.

Get a grip on this.

Over the years very little has come out concerning the early life and initial political career of the Iranian president. Even his own official biography is murky at best concerning the years preceding his emergence as a contender for the presidency. This has changed thanks to a new book entitled, The Bomb and the Koran by Michael Taubman, a French journalist.

The picture of the younger Ahmedinejad is, if anything, less attractive than the image of the past three years. Ahmedinejad was up to the short hairs of his beard in terrorism, Islamist extremism, Iranian Revolutionary Guards combat operations and torture. At the infamous Evan prison, Ahmedinejad was dubbed the "executioner" due to his fondness for dispatching prisoners terminally weakened by the torture administered at the future president's orders.

Ahmedinejad is also a genuine, true believer in the return of the Mahdi in the very near future. More, he believes that he has been selected by the deity to facilitate and hasten that return.

Now for the scary part. Ahmedinejad believes and has asserted more or less privately that a nuclear exchange is the necessary precondition for the quick arrival of the Mahdi.

If Senator Obama truly believes that he can conduct meaningful negotiations with Ahmedinejad, he is not simply "naive" as McCain alleges. No. Obama is terminally out to lunch.

Back during World War II the US president, Franklin D. Roosevelt, held to his belief that Soviet capo Joe Stalin was just another machine boss, not unlike those with whom FDR had successfully dealt in New York City, Chicago, Boston, etc. FDR met with Stalin face to face. Stalin won.

Joe Stalin might have had his quirks, like going off to a movie after signing the death warrant for a few thousand folks. But, he was a conservative rational actor.

The record--past and present--shows Ahmedinejad is neither conservative nor necessarily rational.

Back in 1961 a young American President with far more experience in government and politics than the NYMFC met with Khrushchev in Vienna. JFK had been throughly briefed. He was prepared. He was every bit as articulate as Senator Obama. The one time Ukrainian mine worker ate the Nice Young Man From Boston alive.

Result?

Humiliated, JFK went for more robust policy options in the Western Hemisphere (read Cuba) and Southeast Asia (read Laos and South Vietnam.) In this case the American was neither conservative nor necessarily rational.

Senator Obama needs to get a grip on three things: 1) the nature and character of the Iranian regime, both the front guy and the mullahocracy behind him; 2) history such as that of FDR and JFK both of whom were Democrats and to some extent naive; 3) don't believe your own propaganda--as, unfortunately, the NYMFC appears to, particularly as regards his unique ability to heal divisiveness.

The Geek well understands that the real power in Iran does not rest with Ahmedinejad. It rests with the mullahs, particularly Ahmed Khatamei. The Supreme Guardian of the Revolution and those close to him hold the power.

You don't need a PhD in political science to conclude that talking to Ahmedinejad would have zero benefit for an American president. It might, however, have great and imponderable risks for us and for the world.

Naive is too nice a word.