Much hay has been made over the President’s apology for the United States’ role in the 1953 coup against Mohammad Mossadeq. Despite the fact that Mossadeq was ruling by emergency decree at the time and had threatened President Eisenhower that he would align Iran (and its energy supplies) with the Soviet Union, Mossadeq is remembered in Iran today as something of a George Washington figure, an enlightened leader.
So maybe the President’s apology will get us somewhere with Iran?
Probably not.
Few seem to remember that Secretary of State Madeline Albright already apologized on behalf of Kim Roosevelt and the CIA in 2000. The response from Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei was hardly enthusiastic:
They [American officials] know what they are doing. All this talk on their part about starting a dialogue with the government of Iran is just another ploy. They are laying the groundwork for their future sinister plots. These are deceptions. It is not as if some people can approach America in the hope of starting a dialogue. America’s animosity will not be resolved through discussions. America is only pursuing its own interests in Iran. If on the one hand a puppet government, similar to that of the former shah rules Iran, then the country will suffer, as it did before. If on the other hand, an independent government manages Iran, then America would act with hostility towards it, as it is doing today. And if we compare these two alternatives we come to the conclusion that a nation suffers considerably less for standing up to America than if it were to surrender to the latter’s bullying. The brave Iranian nation has stood up to America’s conspiracies, deceptions and interference. The Iranian nation has relied on its innate strength, intelligence, courage and the country’s capable officials to fight its enemies.
The Iranian nation will be able to make all its enemies including America regret their animosity towards Iran – as some of Iran’s former enemies have done so.
3 responses so far
1 midcon // Jun 6, 2009 at 7:50 am
Zac, I am absolutely certain that Obama harbors no illusions regarding any lessening of the tensions with Iran. I am also certain that his efforts are not even targeting Iran. Instead he is focus on court of world opinion.
Wha we loss in the aftermath of 9/11 upon our invasion of Iraq, was the universal goodwill and support of nearly the entire world. That goodwill was squandered by an Administration who remained clueless how to use it.
Obama intends to get it back. I wish him great success.
2 sinz54 // Jun 6, 2009 at 9:42 am
The Palestinians openly celebrated the attack, dancing in the streets, handing out candy. Media cameramen who tried to film these events received death threats.
And as for the rest of the Muslim world, here’s a poll taken only 5 months after 9-11:
February 26, 2002 Posted: 7:54 PM EST (0054 GMT)
PRINCETON, New Jersey (CNN) –Residents of nine Muslim countries called the United States “ruthless and arrogant” in a new poll, with most describing themselves as “resentful” of the superpower.
The Gallup poll found that by a 2-to-1 margin, residents in these nations express an unfavorable opinion of the United States, and a majority also indicated their displeasure with President Bush.
Most Muslims surveyed expressed the view that the September 11 terrorist attacks on the United States were not justified morally, but larger majorities labeled U.S. military action in Afghanistan “morally unjustifiable.”
Sixty-one percent said they did not believe Arab groups carried out the September 11 terrorist attacks. [!!!]
Researchers conducted face-to-face interviews with 9,924 residents of Pakistan, Iran, Indonesia, Turkey, Lebanon, Morocco, Kuwait, Jordan and Saudi Arabia to gauge public opinion in those countries following the September 11 attacks. About half of the world’s Muslim population lives in those nine countries. Not every question was asked in every nation.
The overall view was not a positive one for the United States: 53 percent of the people questioned had unfavorable opinions of the United States, while 22 percent had favorable opinions.
Most respondents said they thought the United States was aggressive and biased against Islamic values. Specifically, they cited a bias against Palestinians.
They also view American values as deeply materialist and secular and American culture as a corrupting influence on their societies, the poll found.
Residents of Lebanon had the highest favorable opinion of the United States, at 41 percent, followed by NATO ally Turkey with 40 percent. The lowest numbers came from Pakistan, at 5 percent.
Twenty-eight percent of Kuwaitis, 27 percent of Indonesians, 22 percent of Jordanians, 22 percent of Moroccans, 16 percent of Saudi Arabians and
14 percent of Iranians surveyed had a favorable view of the United States.
On Bush, 58 percent of those surveyed had unfavorable opinions, compared with 11 percent who had favorable views.
Of those surveyed, 67 percent saw the September 11 attacks as morally unjustified, while 15 percent of the respondents said they were morally
justified. But 77 percent said the U.S. military action in Afghanistan was morally unjustified, compared with 9 percent who said it was morally justified.
The interviews were conducted between December and January. The respondents were randomly selected and did not know a U.S. firm was sponsoring the poll.
Gallup said the sampling error was plus or minus 1 percentage point for questions asked in all nine countries and plus or minus 4 percentage
points for questions broken down by individual nations.
http://www.cnn.com/2002/US/02/26/gallup.muslims/
3 dragonlady // Jun 7, 2009 at 7:12 pm
So are we going to get an apology anytime soon for Iran holding our citizens hostage for 444 days? Or using Hezbollah to kill 19 Americans at Khobar Towers? Or for killing nearly 200 marines in Lebanon? Or providing shaped charged IEDs to insurgents in Iraq and Afghanistan? Highly unlikely. The extremists over there just use our own apologies against us, unwilling to examine any of their own actions. Which is why when we do negotiate we them, we’ve already weakened our hand morally in their eyes, and they will see no need to make any concessions.
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