Iran & Suspension of Disbelief: Obama & a Nuclear Iran in the Middle East

Yoram Ettinger / Canada Free Press

The term “suspension of disbelief” – coined in 1817 by the philosopher Samuel Taylor Coleridge—refers to a willingness to suspend one’s critical faculties and believe the unbelievable; sacrificing reality, common sense, doubt and complexity on the altar of a pretend reality, convenience and oversimplification; infusing a semblance of truth into an untrue narrative.

Suspension of disbelief characterized the 1977-79 President Carter policy toward Iran, energizing Ayatollah Khomeini, ignoring or underestimating his track record and his radical, supremacist and violent worldview.  The betrayal of the Shah transformed Teheran from “the US policeman in the Gulf” to the worst enemy of the US.

Currently, the suspension of disbelief undermines the US posture of deterrence and vital US national security and commercial interests.  It was demonstrated by President Obama, who—irrespective of Middle East reality—referred to the brutally-intolerant, terror-driven, anti-US, anti-infidel, repressive, tumultuous Arab Tsunami as the Arab Spring “casting off the burdens of the past,” “a story of self determination,” “a democratic upheaval,” “a peaceful opposition,” “rejection of political violence” and “a transition toward (multi-sectarian, multi-ethnic) democracy.”

Suspension of disbelief, coupled with the Ayatollahs’ mastery of ‘Taqiyya’ (Islam-sanctioned double-talk and deception), has ledSecretary Kerry to assert on November 24, 2013: “Iran’s Foreign Minister Zarif emphasized that they don’t intend to acquire nuclear weapons, and Iran’s Supreme Leader has indicated that there is a ‘fatwa’ [an authoritative religious ruling], which forbids them to do this.”  In an April 7, 2015 NPR radio interview, President Obama made a reality-stretching assumption which underlines the Iran policy: “If in fact Iran is engaged in international business… then in many ways it makes it even harder for them to engage in behaviors that are contrary to international norms…. It is possiblethat if we sign this nuclear deal, we strengthen the hand of the more moderate forces in Iran….”

Rebutting Obama: Hope is not a sufficient basis for a strategy

Rebutting Obama, Amir Taheri, a leading authority on Iran wrote: “hope is not a sufficient basis for a strategy…. [The relatively moderate former President] Rafsanjani has little chance of surviving a direct clash with [the Supreme Leader] Khamenei….” The Saudi frustration with US policy on Iran—shared by all pro-US Arab regimes—was expressed on April 25, 2015 by the opinion editor of the prestigious Saudi daily, A-Sharq Al-Awsat, which echoes the position of the House of Saud: “While the US considers the Ayatollahs a legitimate partner to negotiation, Saudi Arabia and other Gulf States are in a state of war with Iran, which is the main source of chaos in the region.”  The editor-in-chief of the Saudi daily added: “Has the Axis of Evil collapsed to the extent that President Obama is courting one of its key members?! Isn’t this the same Teheran that has posed a clear and present danger to the Gulf States for the past 36 years?!”