PLANET IRAN – AT 7:15 P.M. ET:  I was at a meeting today on behalf of Planet Iran, the dynamic and absolutely essential new site devoted to news coming out of Iran. It was a fundraiser, and Planet Iran is definitely worth a contribution.  It is, right now, our best source of information about what's actually happening in a critically important country.

Michael Ledeen, a superlative expert on Iran, and Jim Woolsey, former director of Central Intelligence, spoke.  Both men seemed genuinely and substantially frustrated by the path the Obamans are taking in their "outreach" to or "engagement" with Iran.

Ledeen made the point that the last year and three months have been wasted by the illusion that we can negotiate with the regime now in power.  He asked a blunt question:  "What part of 'Death to America' does Washington not understand?"  He also recalled that the same lack of understanding about the nature of the regime that existed during the Carter administration, some 30 years ago, exists today. 

Both Ledeen and Woolsey likened the West's attitude toward Iran to the free nations' attitude toward Nazi Germany before World War II.  One accommodation after another.  Woolsey noted, to applause, that to get from Munich in 1938 to victory in 1945, we first had to get from Neville Chamberlain to Winston Churchill.  In other words, policy will be determined by the kind of people we put in power.  That was not a compliment toward this president. 

There wasn't much optimism in the room.  Ledeen and Woolsey believe that our only option, short of a military strike on Iran, is trying to do everything possible to foster regime change.  But both men noted that the West hasn't lifted a finger in that direction. 

The crowd around Obama includes retreads from the Carter days.  And they haven't altered their views a bit. 

Unless there's a dramatic change of direction, we'll have a nuclear Iran, with all that implies.  In the meantime, our stalwart administration is going along with international efforts to equate the Israeli nuclear program with the Iranian one, apparently to appease the Iranians further.  That is the worst kind of moral equivalence – the murderer is as good as his intended victim – but it's the mindset in the ultra-liberal, all cultures are equal, Obama administration.

May 7, 2010