Clearly, some courses of action make it more difficult to develop relationships than others. Iran's leadership can watch the American debate on television and hear what is happening in the US Congress as well as any of us can. They need to reflect on the fact that if they follow an extreme and isolationist course, they may find that Obama's hands are tied by constricting domestic ropes.

The real meaning of David Axelrod's statement is that he is keeper of the sacred image of Obama, a new President who does not yet trust the people on his foreign policy team to explain the course he has chosen to the American public.

I saw Axelrod's performance on CNN. He looked like exactly what he is, a campaign operative trying to tread water and get through a press interview while presenting his candidate in a favorable light and otherwise saying nothing. Hence his grim determination during almost five minutes of air time to stick so rigidly to his prepared talking points that he couldn't answer an innocuous question about July 4th festivities at American embassies with either a "yes" or a "no."

At some point, Barack Obama may internalize the most basic lesson of last November, which is that he is actually the President now and needs to trust the explanation of his foreign policy to one (ideally) or more of the people who help him make his foreign policy.

Israel speaks.....

"Go screw yourself, Barry."

"BTW, If you see Harry, tell him thanks for the check, and to keep 'em coming. We could use another shipload of white phospohoprous, too."

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1095031.html

Last update - 04:58 24/06/2009

Barak authorizes construction of 300 new homes in West Bank

By Akiva Eldar, Haaretz Correspondent

Defense Minister Ehud Barak has authorized the building of 300 new homes in the West Bank, defying U.S. calls for a halt to settlement growth.

Activists for Bimkom association, which works for justice and human rights in planning and knows a thing or two about the situation in the territories, have discovered that Barak recently authorized the Civil Administration to submit a plan for the construction of 300 housing units in the unauthorized outpost of Givat Habrecha, near the community of Talmon.

continues....

the curse of being a blogger is that one needs constantly to be blogging...and the situation in Iran, between Iran and the west, and particularly between Iran and the US may not be susceptible to the minutia of the moment. The President made a good point when he said news organizations have short deadlines; he doesn't. I always thought successful diplomacy was a bit like making custard...it takes a lot of stirring before things thicken, and periodic adjustment of the heat.

"Clearly, some courses of action make it more difficult to develop relationships than others. Iran's leadership can watch the American debate on television and hear what is happening in the US Congress as well as any of us can. They need to reflect on the fact that if they follow an extreme and isolationist course, they may find that Obama's hands are tied by constricting domestic ropes."

repeat repeat repeat.

However, I just hope they don't take our *news* that seriously.

There is absolutely NO difficulty reading the tea leaves. What a ridiculous statement. Obama has NOT disavowed the strategy of regime change or frozen any of the vast sums of money going to foster regime change. Those are the real tea leaves.
http://www.foreignpolicyjournal.com/2009/06/23/has-the-u-s-played-a-role-in-fomenting-unrest-during-irans-election/

But Obama is apparently having trouble generating the right noble rhetoric while driving to regime change.

At this stage, it is hard to see how there will be any high-level public discussions taking place between now and 2012.

Doing so would be political suicide for Obama.

Low-level and mid-level discussions may be going forward without conditions behind the scenes -- but even if they are -- they too represent a political risk for Obama if they are exposed.

Dealing with the current military dictatorship in Iran is going to be absolutely toxic for a while.

At this stage, it is hard to see how there will be any high-level public discussions taking place between now and 2012.

Not unless senior people in Iran figure out a way to oust Khamenei, initiate some reforms, end the protests, schedule a new election and bring in international monitors.

The first sentence in my previous comment is a quote from Franklin's comment at 3:21

UK Report from International Business Times-
Rafsanjani has enough support to remove Khamanei

This could change the equation. If so, now is the time before more people are massacred.

http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/articles/20090624/refsanjani-khamenei-iran-iranian-protests.htm

"...now is the time before more people are massacred?" Bill, we just
killed a F-load of Pakistanis-- where is your outrage?

On a daily basis our tax dollars go to slaughtering Iraqis, Afghans,
Pakistanis, PALESTINIANS and the odd Syrian or Lebanese.

That's OUR money being used to "liberate" people by killing them.
Any more UsRael intervention in Iran will result in a real massacre
so dry up those crocodile tears pronto.

Good point, OA.

Here we go again: The people our side kills are all terrorists, the people our appointed enemies kill are freedom fighters. And among the dead there are many more "terrorists" than "freedom fighters" -- women and children first, killed with high explosive fragmentation warheads 'Made in the USA.'

Clemons in a lapse of ‘cocktail sotting’ forgets that diplomacy is the continuation of war by other means, to paraphrase Clausewitz. Like war, one deploys one’s intellectual armaments in the field of diplomacy on the condition that there is a high probability that one will come out a winner from the diplomatic contest. And the timing of the opening of this contest depends on the strengths and weaknesses of one’s enemy. Engineering “strategic shifts” and achieving “strategic priorities” depend on the condition that one’s enemy negotiates from a position of weakness.

I would also like to remind Steve that although it’s certainly true that one has to accept the world as it is and perforce negotiate with one’s foes on this realist principle, as he stated at the New American Foundation conference, one accepts the world as it is ONLY for the purpose of CHANGING it. To merely accept it without the ability to change it, because one’s actions are based on wrong calculations, is a barren futile exercise.

kotzabasis = war 24/7 by any means possible, diplomatic or otherwise, so long as it's not on those dark forces he's yet to acknowledge within himself...

Diplomacy can be war by other means, especially when it isn't really diplomacy, but rather ultimatums which if agreed to eliminate the aggressor's need to attack, but war is phyisical destruction and death, period. Diplomacy is not, although there can be diplomatic agreements which result in suffering and death, especially when elites in the client states sell out their own people to foreign interests purely for power and wealth. The US has a proud history along these lines, of course, both in the Americas south of the Rio Grande and in the Middle East.

On the other hand, when the other nations are ones we cannot or do not see the need to bully, the diplomacy can actually be diplomacy. I think Obama has moved in the right direction in relation to El Salvador, and I'm hoping it's a sign of things to come.

Mexico we did invade. Canada we simply contemplated invading at one time. I guess not all that many Americans wanted to develeop settlements in Canada, Canada was not territory any longer in the hands of the savage red man, and we already had one side of the Great Lakes.

It is a civil war, who do not see it? The ONU needs make something, how many people have to
die for this situation to change?