"'It [Iran] has to be confronted and changed. Iran is a looming challenge. It is negative and destabilizing. It supports terrorists,' said Blair on Friday during his remarks at the Chilcot inquiry, the British inquiry into the war in Iraq.
'I say this to you with all of the passion I possibly can -- at some point the West has to get out of what I think is a wretched policy or posture of apology for believing that we are causing what the Iranians are doing, or what these extremists are doing,' said Blair who serves as the Quartet representative to the Middle East.
Blair stated that he could see the 'impact and the influence of Iran everywhere.'"
http://www.jpost.com/IranianThreat/News/Article.aspx?id=204743
Is Blair correct? Can the impact and influence of Iran be felt everywhere? You darn well better believe it.
As previously observed in this blog, the West is well on its way to losing Jordan. (See: http://jgcaesarea.blogspot.com/2010/12/war-in-middle-east-obama-losing-jordan.html). Not surprisingly, protestors, including members of the Muslim Brotherhood, took to Jordan's streets on Friday, demanding that the government step down.
Also, yesterday, Walid Jumblatt, head of Lebanon's Druze, ominously declared on Friday that he would side with Syria and Hezbollah, i.e. Iran, in forming a new Lebanese government. Jumblatt, the ultimate survivor and weathervane in Lebanon, has acknowledged that he is fearful that Hezbollah might seek to harm Lebanon's Druze minority (see: http://www.jpost.com/MiddleEast/Article.aspx?id=204692) and has abandoned Saad Hariri.
How long until Obama gets tough? Is he even capable of standing up to Ahmadinejad? As further stated by Blair:
"President Obama - not President Bush - goes in March 2009 to Cairo, right in the heart of Islam. He makes a speech where he says effectively 'put aside the Bush era, I'm now offering the hand of friendship, you, Iran can come into partnership, you are an ancient, proud civilisation.'
What's the response he gets? They carry on with the terrorism, they carry on with the destabilisation, they carry on with the nuclear weapons.
At some point we have to get our head out of the sand and understand they are going to carry on with this."
Stay tuned . . .
"How long until Obama gets tough"?
ReplyDeleteObama already was tough - on Israel. This is where he got all the admiration from the folks he cares about. This is how he expressed his world view. It did not get him anywhere with general public though. Being true to himself and to his fondness to Islam, he can not get tough on Iran, or any other Muslim country. I would rather expect more of the same and more pressure on Israel.