My AEI colleague Gary Schmitt points me to this Washington Post story regarding the difficulties Iran’s nuclear program faces. Toward the end of the story, the reporter turns toward the alleged Iranian terrorist plot targeting the Saudi ambassador in Washington and quotes a senior Obama administration official involved in talks with Iran saying, “We’re used to seeing them do bad things, but this plot was so bizarre, it could be a sign of desperation, a reflection of the fact that they’re feeling under siege.”
In other words, the Obama team seems to feel the response to Iranian bad behavior is conciliation. Any Iranian embrace of terrorism is the responsibility not of Iran’s leadership and the poisonous and xenophobic rhetoric Iran’s revolutionaries have embraced, but rather the United States. When will the Obama team realize the world’s ills do not rest on the United States, cease the self-flagellation, and recognize the motivation of our enemies lies in their own perverse ideologies?