Obama who?

Thu, 06/04/2009 - 12:42pm

I was interested that the home page of the Iranian news agency has not a word about President Obama's speech in Cairo. I think this is an interesting sign of success for Obama, because it suggests to me that he just flummoxes the anti-American element in the Middle East. Good for him.

I also was impressed by Jeffrey Goldberg's take on the speech:

"An African-American President with Muslim roots stands before the Muslim world and defends the right of Jews to a nation of their own in their ancestral homeland, and then denounces in vociferous terms the evil of Holocaust denial, and right-wing Israelis go forth and complain that the President is unsympathetic to the housing needs of settlers. Incredible, just incredible." 

Stephen Chernin-Pool/Getty Images

Thomas E. Ricks | Permalink | | Comments? Login or register
( filed under: )


Advertisement

 

The Obama speech sadly was

by antiMKO on Thu, 06/04/2009 - 4:59pm

The Obama speech sadly was overshadowed by an unprecedented event in modern Iranian politics. I'm talking about the debate between the two frontrunners for the Iranian elections Mousavi and Ahmadinejad. Everyone in Iran is talking about it, and sadly not many paid attention to Obama's speech which I thought was very important because a president of the US finally admitted to the overthrowing of the democratically elected Mossadeq of 1953.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/03/AR2009060301359.html?hpid=moreheadlines

Tom, Good point, but he has

by ajaime1178 on Thu, 06/04/2009 - 6:33pm

Tom,

Good point, but he has been "flumoxing" the anti-American elements publicly for awhile. The worst critique is usually that he needs to use less slogans and more actions. The supreme leader has put that out as a talking point for the regime actors. But between the lines it is apparent that even Ahmadinejad, or other hardline clerics during Friday prayer, aren't even criticizing Pres. Obama. They'll criticise "arrogant powers", or the "Zionists", but you won't find 'official' criticism of Obama.

I think this speech will make it better too. Again, they'll say 'more change, less slogan', but his opening up keeps them confused on how to react. The hard core elements (IRGC, etc) can't publicly stand up in extreme opposition anymore... Bush was their best friend.

Also, IRNA, the official news site of the regime itself, isn't actually read by most peeps. They'll usually read other dailies, trust me. Something like 25 million sat dishes are in Iran these days, therefore they've all heard the speech. And, many other dailies will already talk about it. BUT, not as much as they typically would. The media is FLOODED with reporting on the election primarily these days. And with Ahmadinejad and Mousavi's debates last night, the media and election watchers (everyone) is a-buzz... Common Era blog does a great, short analysis of the Ahm-Mus debate: http://commera.wordpress.com

Jaime

It was just a speech

by Don Bacon on Thu, 06/04/2009 - 11:32pm

Does the US press feature Ahmadinejad's speeches? Obama's speech featured no change in policy, no demands, no criticisms of particular illegal actions and no concrete proposals. Nothing to see (or report) here -- move along.

Stop!

by Marcos El Malo on Sat, 06/13/2009 - 12:29am

You're embarrassing yourself (assuming that is possible). How could you be expected to know if the US press has covered any of Ahmadinejad's speeches if you don't read the newspaper?

Here's just one of many articles.

If you can't be bothered to actually know something about something, it's really not worth anyone's time to disabuse you of your notions (assuming your mind were actually open to information that contradicts your view).

Seriously, does anything have

by zjin on Fri, 06/05/2009 - 8:15am

Seriously, does anything have to move around U.S.?

Ok, but Obama is not the

by stephane taillat on Fri, 06/05/2009 - 11:14am

Ok, but Obama is not the first one to do it: he came one month after Benedict XVI..... who was more impressive and deep in its analysis on this problem...

You've got a point

by Marcos El Malo on Sat, 06/13/2009 - 12:34am

You've got a point, but on the other hand, the Pope does not set US Policy nor speak for the American people. Obama's speech was impressive in a different way.

What so impressive with the

by Kenneth Sorensen on Fri, 06/05/2009 - 12:21pm

What so impressive with the socalled Jeffrey Goldbergs comments. Integrety provides you to ignore all that this individual and countless like him [for instance the renowned David Frum] find for good to utter.

It is a sorry state for American debate that you allow these individuals to spew out their take on the situation. They should be shunned

Tom Ricks said: I was

by Kenneth Sorensen on Fri, 06/05/2009 - 12:35pm

Tom Ricks said: I was interested that the home page of the Iranian news agency has not a word about President Obama's speech in Cairo..

You obviously haven't read Trita Parsi' book: Treacherous Alliance. If you had, you would have been aware that Iran in such a situation tries to ignore any approachements between Arabs and the US. This is something ritual because they consider themselves the dominant power in the region, and it is pragmatic policy founded around 1993, when Israel started to consider Iran its greatest enemy [according to Mr. Parsi and several Israeli scholars that he quotes, this was in order to explain to the Israeli people that they should make peace with the Arabs; so they needed a new enemy. It is of of course rotten through and thorugh, and just shows the great costs to the having this chauvinistic colomy lying in the Middle of the Middle East, of all places.]

What is clear is that it is Israel that is upsetting things - always. It has been doing so since its inception. Because Israel started to consider Iran an enemy in 1992-93, Iran started to work against the peace proces. How to solve this? Close Israel, then there will be no need for a peace proces, that Iran can work against.

Kenneth, you skipped a part

by Marcos El Malo on Sat, 06/13/2009 - 12:15am

You forgot to mention how the Jews control the banks. You're getting slipshod. How's the weather there on the Sturmfront?