There is no maturity and should be no pride in the oft used and abused expression “I told you so”. But dammit I told you so, and it was almost two years ago to the day when I warned of the optimism garnered from a long distance phone call between the President of the United States and the President of Iran.
At that time (Oct. 2, 2013), I wrote:
“The only people who should be happy about the American presidential "phone call" to new Iranian President Hassan Rouhani should be AT&T and Rouhani himself. Otherwise we look like rank amateurs in this potentially dangerous encounter.
“As with most international entanglements, the reasons are both simple and complex.
“The simple part is that Rouhani is simply not in charge of his country and therefore not a free agent to make complex international decisions. The complex part--and the element that muddles any conceivable realistic movement to positive relationships-- is the Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei Khomeini and his power to insist the Islamic faith and way of life over Rouhani.
“We in America are often willing to forget historical perspectives as new and often horrible events take over the headlines. Certainly what I have referred to as the "lazy media lambs" don’t keep major events in mind for the public as we move on to new events. Consider the potential missile strike of Syria is but a few weeks ago, and how it was overcome in the public mind by the horrors of Nairobi and then Nigeria and then Chicago, and don’t forget the Navy Yard "distraction."
“Then, Russia’s Putin, having paid millions to PR firm Ketchum, found himself the darling of the New York Times op-ed page with a vastly un-American language contribution and urging more peaceful approaches.
“We lost traction with that one more time.
“While all these new theatrics before the UN are taking place, the conflict-weary Americans worry more about their government shutting down, potentially robbing millions of both government and non-government of promised paychecks and any number of businesses of reliable sales.”
Comes now the activist Russian leader who does not threaten anything. He simply has taken action one more time with the strikes in Syria to protect one more dictator we once threatened if he didn’t stop his murdering activities. The Middle East having witnessed the sound of our threats have now witnessed the fury of Russian reality. And our sense of leadership has once more gone out the window.
Even earlier, I wrote about the Dangers of Irrelevance hoping to generate at least a modicum of interest and action to overcome our clear recession of leadership that began with invasions in Iraq and Afghanistan, to make clear the bipartisan responsibility.
So here we are now, and the best of American governmental PR advisors seem lost in the muddle that we, in the guise of frustrating nuclear development by Iran, have found ourselves mating with that nation who finances the very evils of a Syrian dictator whom we threatened and then walked away from at a crucial point when we might have demonstrated we mean what we say.
In the process, we made damned sure we would dump on Israel and its Prime Minister who quite legitimately warned then and last week of the dangerous path we took during what were called “nuclear negotiations” and now when we have not one foot to stand on in any negotiation with Russia’s Putin.
Yes, I told you so, but in doing so, there is the responsibility to at least suggest what to do now….and fast.
If President Obama could muster the political courage, in light of this week’s events in Syria by the Russians, to say “Stop the action on all that work for nuclear negotiations…assert the United States cannot partner with a nation throwing its power and wealth behind the Syrian dictator…and that we will not move forward on any release of billions in sanctions until and unless both Iran and Russia pull back from their incursions.”
This does not require armed confrontation. Reality, however, does demand some backup to public relations threats and criticisms as a whole world watches to see what indeed American leadership really can be.
Joseph J. Honick is president of GMA International in Bainbridge Island, Wash.
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