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Robert Spencer, PJM: Iran vs. US is Darth Vader vs. Mister Rogers

Jan 26, 2016 1:38 pm By Robert Spencer

In PJ Media today, I discuss the one-sidedness of the conflict between the U.S. and Iran:

Ali Khamenei

On Sunday, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei tweeted a photo of the American sailors that Iran captured and briefly held hostage earlier in January. The sailors were kneeling with their hands behind their heads. Khamenei added other photos of himself smiling with the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps forces that captured the Americans along with a text congratulating them.

Watching the Obama team take on the Islamic Republic on this incident was like watching Mister Rogers deal with Darth Vader. While Iran broadcast its reality to the world, Obama and Kerry lied, treating Americans as children unable to process grown-up dangers.

The incongruities began as soon as the incident became public knowledge, and U.S. officials struggled to put the best possible spin on the events. Obama White House spokesman Josh Earnest said the hostage taking illustrated why the nuclear deal was so urgently needed:

We continue to be concerned about this situation. That precisely is why the president made preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon a top national security priority, and we’re making progress in actually accomplishing that goal.

Earnest seemed to be saying Iran was indeed a rogue regime, and that was why it was so good to have the nuclear deal in place to contain it. Iranian officials, however, were speaking as if it was the U.S. that had been contained. The head of Iran’s armed forces, Major General Hassan Firouzabadi, declared:

This incident in the Persian Gulf, which probably will not be the American forces’ last mistake in the region, should be a lesson to troublemakers in the U.S. Congress.

Vice President Joe Biden, after the sailors were released, dismissed the entire incident as the routine treatment of boats with mechanical difficulties. Denying that the U.S. had apologized to Iran over the incident, as had been widely rumored, Biden said:

When you have a problem with the boat, (do) you apologize the boat had a problem? No. And there was no looking for any apology. This was just standard nautical practice.

The sailors were blindfolded, made to kneel at gunpoint, and interrogated for hours.

Biden called this a rescue:

The Iranians picked up both boats — as we have picked up Iranian boats that needed to be rescued … [The Iranians] realized they were there in distress and said they would release them, and released them like ordinary nations would do.

Defense Secretary Ash Carter sounded similar notes, thanking Secretary of State John Kerry:

… for his diplomatic engagement with Iran to secure our sailors’ swift return. Around the world, the U.S. Navy routinely provides assistance to foreign sailors in distress, and we appreciate the timely way in which this situation was resolved.

Kerry, for his part, was grateful to the Iranians:

All indications suggest or tell us that our sailors were well taken care of, provided with blankets and food and assisted with their return to the fleet earlier today.

He ascribed the Iranians’ swift release of the sailors to communications channels that had been opened during the nuclear negotiations:

I think we can all imagine how a similar situation might have played out three or four years ago, and in fact it is clear that today this kind of issue was able to be peacefully resolved and officially resolved, and that is a testament to the critical role that diplomacy plays in keeping our country safe, secure and strong.

He further thanked the Iranians for their “cooperation and quick response.”

That was that: it was all just a triumph of diplomacy. Kerry added:

These are situations which, as everybody here knows, have the ability, if not properly guided, to get out of control.

But this situation, in his view, had been “properly guided.”

Hossein Salami, the deputy commander of the IRGC, was also glad that things didn’t get out of control, but in a slightly different way. He claimed:

American sailors, started crying after arrest, but the kindness of our Guard made them feel calm.

He also boasted that “since the end of the Second World War, no country has been able to arrest American military personnel” until the Iranians captured these ten sailors.

IRGC commander Ahmad Dolabi exulted:

I saw the weakness, cowardice, and fear of American soldiers myself. Despite having all of the weapons and equipment, they surrendered themselves with the first action of the guardians of Islam. American forces receive the best training and have the most advanced weapons in the world, but they did not have the power to confront the Guard due to weakness of faith and belief.

Kerry did acknowledge that when he saw the footage that the Iranians released of the sailors kneeling gunpoint, his first thought was not conciliatory:

I was very angry. I was very, very frustrated and angry that that was released. I raised it immediately with the Iranians. It was not put out by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs or the government directly, it was put out I think by the military over there, the (Revolutionary Guard), who is opposed to what we are doing….

Read the rest here.

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Filed Under: Featured, Iran, United States Tagged With: Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Hassan Firouzabadi, Joe Biden, John Kerry


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Comments

  1. Walter Sieruk says

    Jan 26, 2016 at 2:21 pm

    One again the ayatollahs and mullahs who have much power in the brutal ,cruel and oppressive tyrannical Islamic regime are showing their malice-filled boastful arrogant contempt for both the United States as well as for other Western countries. Those haughty mullahs and ayatollahs are so awful and hideous that they are similar to, in character, the heinous villains described in the Bible. For the Bible in Psalm 73:6-9. reads “Therefore pride is their necklace; they clothe themselves with violence. From their callous hearts comes iniquity ; the evil conceits of their minds know no limits. They scoff and speak with malice; in their arrogance they threaten oppression. Their mouths lay claim to heaven, and their tongues take possession of the earth.” [N.I.V.]

  2. jihad3tracker says

    Jan 26, 2016 at 2:42 pm

    Here is a brilliant essay by Deborah Tyler in the December 28th edition of American Thinker: http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2015/12/why_people_cant_face_the_truth_about_obama_.html

    She writes about how crucial it is for us to understand why cognitive dissonance bothers humans so intensely — if we want an explanation of hundreds of our fellow citizens seeming to be utterly blind on the unprecedented disaster that Barack Obama has thrown upon the United States.

    The Mulla-ocracy of Iran is NOT suffering from cognitive dissonance. THEY SKIPPED OVER A MULTICULTURAL PHASE — WITH ITS CHRONIC PROBLEMS OF GUILT — AND SO KNOW EXACTLY WHAT THE PLAN IS FOR ISRAEL AND EVENTUALLY AMERICA.

  3. Neil Jennison says

    Jan 26, 2016 at 2:51 pm

    “”While Iran broadcast its reality to the world, Obama and Kerry lied, treating Americans as children unable to process grown-up dangers.””

    Just as Cameron lies to us in the UK, Merkel lies to Germany….and so on throughout the West.

    We have no serious political discussion anymore. It just doesn’t happen because the PC rules do not allow it. A year or so ago I had a argument with Voegalinian about this….I am coming to the conclusion his fundamental point was correct.

    We are crucifying ourselves by refusing to accept the bleeding obvious!

  4. Westman says

    Jan 26, 2016 at 3:31 pm

    The only reason the sailors were so quickly released is that the US could still hold money destined for Iran and its funding of terror groups. When Iran has most of the money and formerly sanctioned trade is underway, the Ayatollah will return to his former ways. For now, he settles for embarassing the US and poking where he can get away with it.

    I think I might live long enough to see a civil war erupt in Iran. The present regime is only in power by intimidation, dishonest elections, and the support of its less-bright citizens. The rest are getting impatient for the promised fruits of the revolution and more freedom. As we all realize, the brightest left 40 years ago and are doctors, engineers, and professionals in the West. It’s no accident that Iran has been 3 years away from the bomb for more than 11 years. How long was WWII, again?

    لحرية هي أعظم . هل لديك لك ؟ – Freedom is the greatest. Do you have yours?

    • Kepha says

      Jan 26, 2016 at 5:04 pm

      Well, if you are right, I hope the USA has the good sense to stay out. The alternatives seem to be the mad mullahs and more like them or a group like the Mujahedin-e-Khalkh. And, if Uncle Kepha were POTUS, he’d order de-naturalization proceedings for every Khalkhi in the country, their rounding up, and given first priority in deportation. Those people boasted in their own circles of being the first revolutionary fighters into the “nest of psies” back in 1979, and America owes them nothing but a good, swift kick in the rear to point them to the exit.

      Yes, Iran, we’re very, very, very sorry that we kept Southern Azerbaijan and Kordestan from falling into the fraternal embrace of Soviet Peoples back in 1946-47, and hence prevented Sadegh Khalkhali and Mohammed Kazem Shariatmadari from being born into a society in which they might have become collective farmers. We’re very sorry that we supported those who overthrew Mossadegh, the mighty, patriotic lion over British petroleum interests and crippled mouse towards the Soviets, whose friends in the Tudeh felt that letting the Soviets loot your oil wealth was “internationalist solidarity”.

      You’re having internal troubles? Why, ain’t that too danged bad. We goofed last time we tried to help keep your country together; we aren’t going to try it again.

  5. Kepha says

    Jan 26, 2016 at 4:52 pm

    No, I will not so insult the memory of Mr. Rogers, who tried to instill ideas of mutual help, neighborliness, and good manners among children. Further, at this stage of the game, while I believe that no country more richly deserves a second visitation of the Mongol Hordes than Islamicist Iran, I do not see Obama’s America as anywhere near as benign as the late Mr. Rogers was.

    Rather, I see this as Darth Vader up against America’s confused, snotty, fourteen-year-old kid who thinks that just in order to try everything offered as new and fashionable, he wants to become a girl; and when a concerned uncle or aunt tries to turn him away from such a course of action, that kid files false accusations of child abuse.

    Unhappily, the face that seems to be offering itself in opposition to the confused kid is a blustery, intellectually vacuous tycoon with a rug who until a few short months ago happily cheered the Clintons and Obama. Yes, Trump is a shrewd enough salesman to sense that America wants serious leadership again. But I wonder what Jerry Falwell, Jr. was thinking when he endorsed this guy who loved using eminent domain to get what he wanted (isn’t there something about devouring widows’ houses in the Prophets and Gospels?), publicly embraced the swinging lifestyle with gusto throughout his career (do Dispensationalists REALLY think that the Seventh Commandment applied only before the coming of Messiah), made much of his money off of casinos (a wonderful, legalized way to rob the poor), and frankly has no appreciation for the checks and balances that make the US government worth preserving.

    Folks, we are watching a contest between EVIL and FOLLY.

    • Kepha says

      Jan 26, 2016 at 5:16 pm

      While I’m at it, Trump’s proud announcement that he never had to ask God for forgiveness scares me more than anything else I have ever heard. Perhaps it’s Trump trying to reassure us he’s a good person who’s OK with God and hence strong and full of self-confidence. Well, the self-confidence is clear. But this absence of any fear of YHWH tells me that he lacks the beginning of real wisdom and ignores the Fifth Petition of the prayer Jesus himself taught us. Sure, it’ll appeal to those who think Jefferson’s cutting and pasting the Gospels was profound and other adherents of “one man’s religion”; perhaps an atheist-deist spectrum on the right. But I think America is being conned by a self-righteous, opportunistic, power-hungry lout of the sort whom our Constitution was designed to protect us.

      BTW, I’m no fan of Hillary Rodham Clinton, whose tongue will one day be a marvel for specialists in acne to study, or of Bernie Sanders whose “free stuff” will both win voters and further bankrupt the country.

      • Laura says

        Jan 27, 2016 at 8:30 am

        Kepha, my thoughts exactly! While we’re at it, why is no one asking Trump (with followups) about what, exactly, Cruz has lied about, or what, exactly, Cruz has done to be “nasty” and “hated by everyone”? I am supremely disappointed in Palin, and Falwell, Jr. – where is their discernment regarding this man? I fear Trump’s claim of being Presbyterian (rather than Christian) is quite telling – ie, sitting in a garage does not make you a car. My hopefulness is directed to believing perhaps they have been put in place to bring Trump to the saving knowledge of Yeshua.

        • Kepha says

          Jan 27, 2016 at 11:23 am

          Laura, I see Trump and I say “there, but for the grace of God, goeth Uncle Kepha.” I’m a Presbyterian myself (albeit of the “fundamentalist” rather than “Mainstream” variety) and cannot recognize my religion in the few snippets Trump has given of his.

  6. Angemon says

    Jan 26, 2016 at 5:45 pm

    While Iran broadcast its reality to the world, Obama and Kerry lied, treating Americans as children unable to process grown-up dangers.

    With all the “safe spaces” in American Universities, where students can go and get hugged and watch films of puppies and kitties after experiencing the horror of someone holding opposing views, that might be the reality in a few generations…

  7. E Ward says

    Jan 26, 2016 at 10:43 pm

    I call BS on this whole charade. Iran just never misses a chance to humiliate the USA, and look innocent all the while.

    Major Fizzybody said:
    This event “should be a lesson to troublemakers in the U.S. Congress.”
    Why is a military man, supposedly under direct order of a higher command making (UNAUTHORIZED?) threats to OUR CONGRESS?

    Similarly, US sailors do not have the AUTHORIZATION to remark publicly upon international incidents, much less apologize for them. I’m sure the apology was given under duress, and our sailors heroically played the fools for the greater good.

    Are we now allowing underlings on both sides to conduct international affairs for the US and Iran? This was a shameful demonstration of Kerry’s fecklessness and Iran’s endless and obvious duplicity.

  8. dbd says

    Jan 27, 2016 at 2:44 am

    In response to Neil Jennison…PC actually does not have that much impact in the U.S. anymore. Things got a little rough during the 1970s/80s. PC (correct think/correct speech/fear driven correct everything) was regularly used to “bitch slap” the average citizen, employers, politicians, etc. By the 1990s it began to burn itself out, and by the end of the 1990s into the 2000s, PC had largely become an object of ridicule and scorn. Politicians will still prostrate to it from time to time, but they just end up looking ridiculous.

    The usual hysterical fringe groups (to which we can now add CAIR) keep trying to resuscitate it. PC is, after all, nothing more than a loathsome tool used by loathsome people to advance even more loathsome agendas. In 2011 an epic Supreme Ct decision, Snyder vs Phelps, sided with the American constitutionally enshrined principle of free speech, no matter how vile that speech may be, and believe me, the Phelps (Westboro Baptist Church) used profoundly vile speech. It was an incredible 8-1 decision on the side of free speech.

    The Snyder’s wanted nothing more than to bury their son in peace and dignity. The Supreme Ct considered the concept of free speech so essential to the health of a democracy, as to allow the WBC to shriek filthy and degrading words as the Snyder’s buried their son.

    That was hard to swallow, but free speech (not circumscribed free speech) is one of the pillars upon which a healthy democracy rests. Start making exceptions; such as Great Britain did from the 1980s forward, then the government starts to become unstable and fearful…and finally repressive. Sound familiar? It seems that blotted PC has become the new Divine Right of British politics. Sad, but fixable. You are too great a people to fall into the darkness of PC simply because of a few pieces of execrable legislation (written with swollen hubris and cowardly arrogance). Just saying.

  9. dbd says

    Jan 27, 2016 at 11:46 am

    Bloated not blotted.

  10. mach37 says

    Jan 27, 2016 at 5:38 pm

    This act by Iran is a good example of the Koran, the exacting of “willing submission and feel themselves subdued.” S 9:29: “Fight those who believe not in Allah nor the Last Day, nor hold that forbidden which hath been forbidden by Allah and His Messenger, nor acknowledge the religion of Truth, (even if they are ) of the People of the Book, until they pay the jizya with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued”

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