Good News for once

There are reports today that Iran has backed away from its plan to send ships to accompany another "peace" flotilla to Gaza. After the "activists" attacked the Israelis enforcing the blockade and nine people were killed in the ensuing battle, the Iranians announced that they would send ships with troops to accompany the next group of "activists". for its part Israel announced and officially informed the UN that any presence of Iranian ships in Israeli waters would be considered an act of war and would lead to full scale hostilities. Today, the Iranians announced that due to the intransigence of the Israelis, Iran was giving up its plans to go to Gaza.

This is wonderful news. It shows that the Iranians are basically wimps with big mouths. No one did anything against Iran, but they ran from the confrontation. Indeed, it is interesting to see how quickly the Iranians retreated once Israel stood firm. This is very similar to the Iranian reaction when the Iraqi government took on the Mahdi Army in Iraq a few years back. The Mahdi Armi is the Shia Militia supported by the Iranians which was causing all sorts of problems in Iraq. Iran did nothing to help that militia when government troops came to their strongholds.

This should be a lesson to President Obama. For the last year and a half, he has been trying to be nice to the Iranians. The US has allowed Iranians to aid the Taliban and to help the few insurgents remaining in Iraq. The Us has allowed the Iranians to work towards nuclear weapons with little meaningful opposition. the US has settled for sanctions from the UN so weak that they cannot achieve anything. Indeed, Obama has lately been trying to get Congress to weaken the proposed unilateral US sanctions on Iran. This nice guy policy has not worked at all. Talking has achieved only more talking.

On the other hand, one strong move by Israel or the Iraqi government has led to a full retreat by the Iranians. The mullahs realize how weak and vulnerable they really are. They will not risk a true confrontation that could lead to their ouster from power.

Obama, are you paying attention? I hope so!