Little Green Footballs’ head explodes at word that former Iranian President and noted reformer, Mohammad Khatami is going to visit the United States and be hosted by Jimmy Carter.
Didn’t Jimmy Carter do enough damage the first time he tried diplomacy with Iran? Carter Agrees to Hold Talks With Khatami. (Hat tip: LawHawk.)
Giving Khatami a visa is a sheer outrage, at a time when Iran is issuing genocidal threats, sponsoring terrorism around the world, and rushing toward nuclear weapons. What the hell is wrong with our government?
Meanwhile, Captain Ed isn’t much better.
Carter’s belief in dialogue mirrors the utopian vision of the Left, a moral-relativist existence where all people are reasonable and all conflict results from simple misunderstandings. Carter has never understood the nature of evil, even while confronted with it in office; his post-presidential career has not provided him with an education, either. Years of diplomatic and economic engagement with Iran by the EU has not brought about a moderation of its policies, despite his sanctimonious statement on “talking to people who you have problems with”.
Iran has made it clear, through the mullah’s latest mouthpiece Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, that they intend on eliminating Israel from the Middle East. Their new president talks about it constantly and has demanded that his trading partners in Europe carve out some of their own territory to house the Israelis before Iran fulfills its pledges. Khatami and his moderates have not spoken a word against these constant statements, nor have they lifted a finger to end the grip of the radical mullahs on Iranian government. None of these actions require American dialogue, and none of them would benefit from it as long as that dialogue seeks accommodation with radical nihilists.
Here is some more reaction from wingnutostan:
Anne Bayefsky
U.S.-Iran policy, spearheaded by Nicholas Burns and Secretary of State Rice, is a train to nowheresville, literally. That’s what the world will look like (starting with the hole in the ground that was once Israel) when Iran has acquired nuclear weapons.
Pooya Dayanim
The issuance of a United States visa to Mohammad Khatami, the former president of the Islamic Republic of Iran, is an insult to the American people, a slap in the face of Iran’s pro-democracy movement, a mockery of the immigration and antiterrorism laws, and a continuation of the schizophrenic non-policy of the State Department. To see him here, in both New York and Washington, D.C., cities attacked five years ago, will be heartbreaking.
Michael Ledeen
Giving Khatami prestigious platforms all over America is a dumb move, and it will enormously discourage the Iranian people. For those who believed Bush is serious about regime change, this is a numbing blow. Would FDR have given Goebbels a visa while the Reich was attacking Czechoslovakia?
Faith J. H. McDonnell
It is not out of character for CAIR to host mass murdering Iranian ex-president Mohammad Khatami. But should we be surprised that the National Episcopal Cathedral has chosen an Islamist mullah whose goal is the destruction of Israel, under whose regime persecution of Christians flourished, and who ruthlessly repressed Muslim reformers in Iran, to speak about the role of the three “Abrahamic faiths” in promoting peace?
Gary Metz
The State Department that calls Hezbollah a terrorist organization granted on Tuesday a visa to the man who presided over the creation of Hezbollah, the former president of the Islamic Republic, Mohammad Khatami.
One thing we can say with assurance. National Review Online has no regard for the truth. None. Neither do the people at Regime Change Iran. Read the BBC’s profile of Khatami and the Wiki and compare them to the insanity being spewed by Ledeen and his war-loving cohorts. We must attempt to stand up to these bullies. They have no other priority than creative destruction.