7.13.14: Coming Back to Bite US

Detroit Free Press Columnist Stephen Henderson commented that the round table had been snickering during David Gregory's interview with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, which is an understated reaction to say the least.

At every turn on every topic - from Syria to Centrifuges - Mr. Zarif explained that Iran was neither the aggressive actor nor responsible for situations that it helped to created and/or exacerbate. 

Mr. Zarif talked of logical and reasonable actions and reactions throughout the interview but that depends on from which perspective you’re looking.  He said that Iran goes out of its way to show its neighbors that they want to live in peace in the region.  He explained that Iran would not dismantle any centrifuges, would provide credible assurances to the international community that they are not building a nuclear weapon.  Credible assurances?    What does that even mean?  Also, he said that Iran has a right to have what everyone else has, meaning a nuclear weapon, but then went on to say that having them doesn’t make anyone safer.  He said that the paradigm of being safe because of the guarantee of mutually assured destruction is mad.  You see how contradictory his statements are.

With regard Iran’s support of Hamas, he said that Iran was going to support people who protect themselves, as if Hamas was simply a victim in the conflict with Israel.  Hezbollah and Hamas are funded by Iran and both have carried out terrorist acts.  He blamed the United States, of course for not taking any action or condemning Israel for the deaths of Palestinians, yet the funding for Hamas’ rockets being fired into Israel comes from Iran.  The big difference is that the United States does pretend it has nothing to do with what’s happening there, whereas Iran pleads innocent.  And Mr. Zarif wonders allow why the international community thinks Iran is up to no good.

Once blaming the United States, Mr. Zarif said the U.S. is supporting ISIS in an attempt to dismantle Syria, which saying that Iran respects the will of the Syrian people.  If you conflate the ‘Syria people’ with the Assad regime then that makes sense.  Either way, it’s clear that Iran is backing Assad and his use of chemical weapons against his own people, hence condoning mass murder.

However, he disputed the claim that Iran supports an individual [read: Assad] and that the people had no trouble casting their votes in Lebanon.  The fact that they’re casting votes in Lebanon to ‘choose’ the leader in Syria should tell you enough.  As Jeffrey Goldberg explained post interview, the whole thing is a cosmic joke.  Iran is working toward a nuclear weapon so that it can play that very stand off game with Israel and they are the prime sponsors of Assad.  It’s state terrorism institutionalized.

The one place where we heap blame on the United States is for building a nuclear reactor in Iran, in the 1950’s, in the first place.  So typical… Like when we helped the Mujahideen in the 80’s topple the Soviets in Afghanistan and then they morphed into Al Qaeda.  One of these days, the U.S. will think a little bit more longer term so that these kinds of things will stop coming back to bite us.

Round Table: Fmr. Gov. Jennifer Granholm (D-MI); Fmr. Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA); Stephen Henderson Columnist, Detroit Free Press; Kimberley Strassel Columnist, The Wall Street Journal