Clinton: There has to be an "understanding"

 

When a psychiatrist rewards rats for finishing a maze, is it the psychiatrist who is training the rats to finish mazes, or the rats who are training him to give them cheese? The answer to that question hinges on who controls the experiment.

 -- Sultan Knish

 

 

 

Yesterday, Secretary Clinton met with the Qatari prime minister and foreign minister. In remarks afterward, she was asked by CNN's Elise Labott for the U.S. response to Iran's accusation that the U.S. and Israel killed one its nuclear scientists.

 

 I think it’s important to recognize very clearly that the provocative rhetoric coming out of Iran in the last week has been quite concerning. It has caused us and many of our partners in the region and around the world to reach out to the Iranians to impress upon them the provocative and dangerous nature of the threats to close the Strait of Hormuz. This is an international waterway. The United States and others are committed to keeping it open. It’s part of the lifeline that keeps oil and gas moving around the world. And it’s also important to speak as clearly as we can to the Iranians about the dangers of this kind of provocation.

Having said that, I want to categorically deny any United States involvement in any kind of act of violence inside Iran.

We believe that there has to be an understanding between Iran, its neighbors, and the international community that finds a way forward for it to end its provocative behavior, end its search for nuclear weapons, and rejoin the international community and be a productive member of it.

 

Why in the world would she do this? Why not leave the matter open to Iranian imagination and paranoid speculation?  Why would the U.S. "categorically" shut the door on the possibility that we can go into their country and do as we please? The inescapable takeaway is that the U.S. is afraid to offend.

Ahmadinejad, on the other hand, is on top of the world, with nothing to fear. Not only is he building a nuclear weapon (potentially starting a nuclear arms race in the Middle East) and threatening the Strait of Hormuz, he's taunting us from within our own hemisphere -- in Venezuela and Nicaragua...

 

Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega (L) Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez (C) and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in Managua on January 10, 2012.

 

... and TODAY in Cuba -- just 90 miles from the tip of Key West, Florida!

At a Thursday meeting in the Cuban capital city, Havana, President Ahmadinejad and Castro underscored the need for convergence and unity of all the revolutionary nations to alter the world's unjust standards through perseverance against the hegemony of the bullying powers.

“Since capitalism has reached the end of the road, the two great nations of Iran and Cuba now shoulder a heavy responsibility to establish a new world order based on humanity and justice,” the Iranian chief executive said. He called on the world's independent nations to thwart the imperialist powers' campaigns against the sovereignty of other nations by means of unity and enhancement of ties.

The Cuban revolution leader praised Iran's “outstanding position” in resisting the arrogant powers, and described the Islamic Republic as “the beacon of hope” for the world nations. 

 

Meanwhile, Clinton's "categorical" denial of any involvement in the assassination of the Iranian scientist has the added effect of leaving Israel holding the bag - largely in silence... 

 

While Israel generally refuses to comment on accusations and speculation, Brig. Gen. Yoav Mordechai, a spokesman for the Israel Defense Forces, said on his Facebook page Wednesday, "I have no idea who targeted the Iranian scientist but I certainly don't shed a tear."

 

Exactly what Hillary should have said.

Comments

[Mannie Sherberg]

What we're dealing with here is monomania -- on both sides. Hillary has as much chance of getting through to the Iranians as I have of becoming editor of the New York Times. Why? Because Ahmadinejad and the mullahs are monomaniacs -- people in the grip of a single overriding idea: the idea that provoking -- and perhaps fighting -- America and the West will ultimately bring about the return of the Hidden Imam and the restoration of the caliphate, this time under Shia control. Because they are monomaniacs, they are no more susceptible to Hillary's blandishments and balderdash than Hitler -- another monomaniac -- was susceptible to the blandishments and balderdash from Chamberlain and Daladier in 1938. Monomaniacs are, by definition, people whose minds are so hermetically sealed that they are impervious to rational discussion or persuasion. So why does Hillary persist in spouting the sort of nonsense she spouted yesterday? Because she and Obama and the rest of the worldwide Left are in the grip of an idea almost as monomaniacal as their Iranian counterparts': the idea that all human beings can -- if we persist long enough -- be made to listen to reason. This is part of one of the key dogmas in the religion of the Left -- the dogma of the perfectibility of man. As long as we have socialist and quasi-socialist true-believers running this country, we will have to bear with the kind of prattle we heard from Hillary yesterday. If she didn't say things this silly, she'd lose her union card in FOOLS (Fellowship Of Obtuse Liberal Saps).

[scp]

(This is waaay off-topic, but...) Is it just my imagination, or does Hugo Chavez look like Budda in a suit? http://buddhastatuess.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/Budda.jpg

[Yael]

He is rather obese, isn't he? Shame on him. He should emulate Obama, and take up smoking.