Dan

Calabrese

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April 20, 2009

Roxana Saberi: Iran’s Newest Hostage for America’s Newest Weak President

Perhaps it would be a bit cheap to label it Iran Hostage Crisis II, but it would be criminal to take a dismissive attitude toward Iran’s imprisoning of American citizen Roxana Saberi on obviously phony “spying” charges.

And it would be ridiculous not to note how well the Obama Administration’s attempt to make nicey-nice with the mad mullahs is working out so far.

Ms. Saberi, a freelance journalist and a native of Fargo, North Dakota, holds joint U.S.-Iranian citizenship, and has been living in Iran for the past six years working on a book about Iran’s culture even as she also reports for National Public Radio and the BBC. This past week, she was convicted in a typical Iranian trial – behind closed doors, without any of the so-called evidence made public – of passing classified information to U.S. intelligence services.

The Iranians sentenced Saberi to eight years in prison. She could have gotten the death penalty.

Thus far, President Obama has offered the milquetoast sentiment that he is “deeply disappointed,” while Secretary of State Hillary Clinton says the U.S. plans to “vigorously raise our concerns.” Ooh. That’ll scare ‘em.

When then-vice-presidential candidate Joe Biden said during the campaign that Obama would be tested internationally, and quickly, the surprise was that he said it in public, not that it was true. Anyone could see that an amateur president with a decided disdain for muscular foreign policy would be tested by international ne’er-do-wells. Lest anyone thought it would end with Somali pirates, we’re now in a similar place to where we left off in 1981 – when Iran released its 53 long-held U.S. hostages at the very hour Ronald Reagan was taking the oath of office.

Please note: Once they no longer had the luxury of slapping around the limp-wristed Jimmy Carter, the Iranians had no interest in poking the eye of the United States – at least not until they had a deliverable nuclear weapon, which of course they are still developing. But in the meantime, why worry about U.S.-imposed consequences from an administration that is willing to do little more than express its deep disappointment and vigorously raise concerns?

One fears the Obama Administration will be loathe to let the fate of Ms. Saberi become a cause célèbre or a high-profile priority. And if it does – which it should – there are several directions it could take, and given the inclinations of this administration, few of them are good.

Most likely, the Iranians want something. Perhaps they want the U.S. to back off on the nuclear issue, or they want us to apply pressure to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not to attack their nuclear operations. Perhaps they want some sort of concession with respect to Iraq. Perhaps they want us to take the possibility of future economic sanctions off the table.

What they should get is a swift slap upside the head, perhaps in the form of a naval blockade, until Ms. Saberi is released. The worst thing that could happen here would be for Obama to give Iran behind-closed-door concessions to win Ms. Saberi’s release, after which he would claim credit for having won a peaceful, diplomatic solution. In fact, of course, this approach would merely prove to the world’s malefactors that Obama can be rolled.

But he’s making that kind of obvious anyway, isn’t he? He’s slapping skin with Hugo Chavez and Daniel Ortega and the Summit of the Americas while moving at a shockingly breakneck speed to restore diplomatic relations with Cuba, which has done nothing whatsoever to earn such a plum gift.

And Obama is apologizing everywhere he goes in the world for America’s protecting of its own strategic interests prior to his ascension as amateur president. The message is clear: There’s no need to poke me in the eye, because I’m already blinking.

So far, extending the hand of friendship to Iran has gotten Obama nothing more than strong rhetorical rebukes and another American hostage, whose fate he would be derelict to ignore.

Maybe the world doesn’t quite work the way Obama thought it did. Maybe the world works the way those of us who remember the Carter presidency should know that it does.

© 2009 North Star Writers Group. May not be republished without permission.

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