For all appearances, Nancy Pelosi is establishing herself as a bona fide advocate of Iran’s terrorist regime. This is not to say that the Speaker of the House endorses Khomeinist terrorism, but rather that she is among those who believe the mullahs to be “saber rattlers,” not saber users. Nevermind that the saber has been dripping blood for thirty years.
This morning, NBC aired footage of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad during which the president of Iran claimed to see “new behavior shown by the United States and the officials of the United States,” and stated “if the [American] approach changes, we will be facing a new situation, and the response by the Iranian people will be a positive one.”
Soon afterward, Pelosi appeared on NBC’s “Today Show” and said Ahmadinejad’s comments “represent an opening in terms of him saying he’ll try to find common ground.” In itself Pelosi’s statement reveals nothing more than a humiliating level of gullibility in a public servant of her stature. (Ahmadinejad’s remarks are merely the most recent offering in the mullahs’ ongoing strategy of alternating apocalyptic threats with fake diplomatic overtures so they can buy time to develop weapons.) But taken in concert with her full-throated appreciation of the Islamic Republic’s kindly actions in Iraq, today’s sunny review necessarily raises questions about Pelosi’s fundamental assessment of the Iranian threat.
In May, Pelosi told a group of reporters from the San Francisco Chronicle that “some of the success of the surge is at the goodwill of the Iranians-they decided in Basra when the fighting would end, they negotiated that cessation of hostilities-the Iranians.” Of course, Basra had nothing to do with the surge in the first place and in the second Iran has been, along with al Qaeda, the chief facilitator of terrorism in post-Saddam Iraq.
You’d think after giving credit for American success to America’s sworn enemies, the Speaker of the House would back off from flattering the mullahs. She might even attempt to clarify or correct the record. A mere “‘goodwill’ was the wrong term” would have gone a long way. Yet no clarification or correction was issued. And Pelosi’s comments this morning confirm the reason: She gives Iran the benefit of the doubt.
After the kidnappings, the terrorist activities that have killed Americans over three decades, the threats to destroy Israel, the attempts to destroy Iraq, the training and support of Hezbollah, the torture and murder of thousands of Iranians, the entreaties to convert to Islam, and the continued nuclear weapons development, the second in line for the presidency sees “an opening” in the scripted meaninglessness of the mullahs latest puppet.
Last week in Geneva, when Iran submitted its ridiculous “none paper” of demands and called it negotiation, even the most enthusiastic proponents of diplomacy knew that talks were a farce. But if you’ve left yourself no option but talking, what’s the difference? You have to stay in the farce indefinitely. You have to talk it up and point out new hopeful developments. There’s no plan B for people like Pelosi. So she must treat every joke and lie as if it were a meaningful opportunity. She’s locked herself into playing the mullahs’ game through to the end.
