McCain, Obama and Iran

If we needed any proof that the election campaign of November, 2008, is underway, checking the news provides it. Specifically, John McCain, the GOP presidential nominee has attacked and continues to attack Barack Obama, Democratic presidential nominee, on the problem of Iran.

Obama’s sin, according to McCain, is that he wants to negotiate with Iran. Horrors! That might keep us out of another nasty war like the disaster in Iraq.

Iranian President Ahmadinejad is not any sensible person’s admired statesman, of course. He’s an off-the-wall wingnut and Americans are rightly repelled by his detestable remarks denying the Holocaust and demonizing Israel. McCain’s implication that Obama wants to buddy up with this clown could well hurt the Democrat’s standing with voters. That is if we believe that is what Obama is suggesting. It isn’t. Let’s repeat: It is not.

For the benefit of those among us who don’t have time to read the news in depth, Obama’s exact words were that he “would be willing to lead tough and principled diplomacy with the appropriate Iranian leader. That wouldn’t be Ahmadinejad. Sure, he’s Iran’s president. But in Iran’s system, the country’s supreme leader is Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, not the president. He is the commander in chief and it is he who has final say in foreign policy, nuclear programs and defense. We did all know that, didn’t we?

Khamenei has a history of reasonable attitudes. It was he who authorized Iranian diplomats to join Americans, in 2002 in Germany, to talk about the future of Afghanistan. It was he who agreed to direct talks between Iranian diplomats and Americans about security issues in Iraq. And, this January, it was Khamenei who stated his willingness to restore diplomatic relations with the USA after the conflict with Iraq ended.

Obama is not the naive fool portrayed by McCain. By bringing Iran and our country to the same table, the Democrat could undermine Ahmadinejad’s power. That could only be a good thing.

Of course, effective diplomacy would mean avoiding another disastrous war and the deaths of many innocents, including our own soldiers. This would make warrior McCain unhappy. But, as Winston Churchill famously once said, “Jaw-jaw is better than war-war.

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