President Ahmadinejad of Iran has demanded an apology from US president Barack Obama for the “crimes” committed by George W. Bush against the Iranian people. Obama seems to be caught between two controversial names that noisily figured in the international political scene in 2008. Must Obama be expected to clean up the tracks of his swaggering predecessor? Obama, though, may not have a problem with this request since his foreign policy is more reconciliatory. In fact, he has sent conciliatory signals to the Muslim world.

But Ahmadinejad wants more. He asks Obama to withdraw all US troops from conflict zones around the world. This challenge comes after Obama’s platform of ‘change.’ According to the Iranian president, Obama should fulfill his promise of real change by ending US military presence in the world. This, of course, is asking for the world.

With reduced US military presence, Muslim extremists will simply take over and run the planet. After all, that is part of their political agenda. To top that, Iran is said to be maintaining a nuclear program for the purpose of acquiring an arsenal of atomic weapons. Tehran denies the accusations and says that its uranium enrichment project seeks only civilian energy applications. No one believes that, of course. The Iranian president should realize that diplomacy is one thing and stupidity is another thing.

Obama has sent the message to the Muslim world that Americans are not their enemies. He added that the US is willing to mend relations that were damaged by previous governments. Obama declared that there is no reason why the same type of respect and cooperation that the US had with the Muslim world 20 or 30 years ago should not resume. Iran and the United States severed ties in 1980 after the assault on the US embassy in Tehran and the triumph of the Islamic revolution that overthrew the regime of the last Shah of Persia, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.

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Via Times Online