Iran: Obama’s first foreign affairs error

Who would have thought ten years ago that a Democratic President of the US would refuse to condemn an Iranian Government’s attempt to rig an election and to clamp down on the subsequent protest marches calling for more western style freedom?

It’s unimaginable that Clinton would have acted in such a way. Prior to the 2000 election, most of Clinton’s republican critics were accusing him of being too interventionist while the liberal left’s initial criticism of George Bush was that he had never left US shores and had no interest in anything outside its borders. It was 9/11 that jolted the Bush administration out of its isolationism and the adoption of its interventionist neo-con approach.

Obama’s attempt to distance himself from his predecessor is understandable and his recent speech in Egypt offering an olive branch to the Muslim world is welcome. But I cannot help feeling that Obama's failure to make a stand on this issue is a step too far.

The Obama administration is obviously betting that President Ahmadinejad will survive his current difficulties and will have to deal with him when things settle down again in Iran. They may sadly be right, but his failure to support the reformers is deeply dispiriting and a first sign that Obama’s policy is less about Western-Islamic reconciliation and more about appeasing Islamic fundamentalists.