Obama's "Dialogue/Negotiation" Iran Strategy Falters

When Obama entered the White House, many Americans who voted for him had high expectations and great hopes that he would be able to carry out significant changes in the arena of foreign policy. All eyes were on Obama to part from the aggressive, disastrous war policies of Bush and Cheney and abandon the hostile rhetoric and the belligerent mentality of “We’re the Superpower” who runs the world. American Iranian Friendship Committee (AIFC) supported Obama in his bid for the White House because of his promise to “negotiate” and carry out “dialogue with Iran”. Up to this point, however, President Obama is failing miserably to carry out any substantial changes in the disastrous war-prone foreign policy direction, and most recently his administration has been ratcheting up the calls for sanctions and war against Iran, which once again is being cast in the American media as the country presenting a “nuclear threat” to the U.S. Why?

One of the first warning signs that the campaign rhetoric would not meet the reality was when Obama appointed many of the so-called “experienced” faces from the Father Bush era and the Clinton Administration who were well-known for their close association with the pro-Israeli Zionist lobby – AIPAC, and their ties to the U.S. military machine. While the patriotic and peace-loving Americans diligently worked during the presidential campaign to expose the danger of the war profiteers, only initially did Obama put distance between some of the most rabid neocons and anti-Iran ideologues in the U.S., whose anti-terrorist hysteria had been successfully unleashed during the previous eight years to fuel the drive for war against Iraq and Afghanistan. Using the excuse of “continuity” and “experience” his appointments of Hillary Clinton, as Secretary of State as well as Rahm Emmanual, and Pentagon Secretary Robert Gates and for a time Dennis Ross, all characters with an admittedly hostile attitude toward not only Iran, but also toward the beleaguered people of Palestine, Lebanon and Syria, forewarned of a lack of genuine commitment for peace in the Middle East. Whenever he had the chance to appoint more balanced political forces, he pushed them aside in favor of the servants of the pro-Israeli state. Furthermore, Obama’s lack of willingness to confront the pro-Zionist and pro-war section of the American political elite and giving legitimacy and voice to the conservative elements that work relentlessly in Washington to feed the grotesque U.S. military budget at the expense of all other social and economic programs may be the fatal error that will engineer the weapons-laden U.S. freight train right into another collision.

Those Iranians and Americans who think that Obama has not been able to normalize relations with Iran because of Iran’s unwillingness to do so, and those who put the blame on the toughness of Ahamdinejad are completely wrong and overlooking the real economic forces at play. History shows that the U.S. does not need excuses to wage war, or militarily attack others, evidenced by the undeniable involvement in more than 200 military adventures and attacks abroad in the brief history of the United States of America.

By Eleanor Ommani, Co-founder of American Iranian Friendship Committee (AIFC)