“Who is Iran’s Obama?”

Francis Sedgemore, Thursday 22 January 2009 at 13:52 UTC

Watching again Barack Obama’s inauguration speech, I’m drawn to the following passage:

“There is only one force of history that can break the reign of hatred and resentment, expose the pretensions of tyrants and reward the hopes of the decent and tolerant. And that is the force of human freedom. To those who cling to power through corruption and deceit, and the silencing of dissent, know that you are on the wrong side of history; but that we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist.

We shall see how power weighs on the shoulders of the bookish lawyer from Illinois. But if he and his administration look to these words as the core of their international manifesto, then something good will surely come of their work.

The title of this post accompanied an image of Obama on the cover of a pro-reform magazine that was banned immediately it hit the shelves in Tehran. If Obama’s words are a coded reference to Iran, then let’s hope the invitation is accepted. Otherwise, the new president may end up doing what his electoral rival sang about in semi-jest, and for which he was rightfully excoriated.


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Comments

  1. Gadjo Dilo

    Friday 23 January 2009 at 06:15 UTC

    That’s pretty impressive speech-making by any standards. Yes, we can but hope.

  2. Francis Sedgemore

    Friday 23 January 2009 at 09:57 UTC

    Yes, we can. :-)

    The Christmas bumper issue of The Economist (it has taken me a while to wade through its verbiage) discusses Obama and Iran in the form of an imaginary email to the new president.

    As well as raising the possibility of extending the US nuclear umbrella to cover friendly Arab countries as well as Israel, the Economist email sounds a warning:

    “If you decide it’s better to let Iran ger its bomb than to risk bombing it, we don’t have to tell anybody for a bit. Pretending to keep a military threat on the table while trying to talk or bribe Iran out of going nuclear is not a bad policy. But be under no illusion: it’s the policy the previous administration tried too, with zero results. You’ve promised bigger carrots and threatened bigger sticks. But President Bush and the Europeans tried a good cop, bad cop routine and Iran ran circles round them both.”

    Dubya dithered, but Obama will have to act on Iran. One way or the other.