Crooks and Liars posted a video of Barack Obama extending a holiday greeting to the people of Iran. While watching this video, I can’t help but think of the contrast between this administration and the last one. No cowboy bluster and threats of “bring it on.” Rather, here’s a guy who’s willing to extend an olive branch of understanding and attempt to get inside of the cultural mindset of the people he’s talking to.

My first reaction is “Shit must be really bad for him to take this measure. I’m sure it will bring political backlash. The rabid right will call him “soft on terror”, the dumber amongst them will see this as yet more evidence that he’s part of some Al Qaeda sleeper cell… and political cynics like myself will say “Is the Iranian oil bourse on a fast-track to dump the dollar?”

I am someone who never takes news at face value. I probably stretch my credibility at times because I’m always wondering what the “back story” on an event like this is. I can’t help but see it tied to the economy. Perhaps I am wrong. This is still his first 100 days. He may, in fact, be trying to create a whole new Era of Diplomacy for the United States government and realizes that to do so effectively, he has to start early in this first term, so that any future actions he takes can refer back to this olive branch moment.

He’s taking a risk, for sure. He is risking that there will not be a future terrorist attack on American soil which the rabid right can seize upon as a “soft on terror” moment and say, “he never shoulda let them towel-heads outta of his crosshairs,” but I’d be lying if I didn’t also say I think 9/11 was entirely an inside job and that the biggest terrorist threat to the Republic are the neo-con clowns who just left office. So, if the Inside Job “theory” is accurate, let’s just hope that whoever is inside Al Qaeda giving them the marching orders to do the neo-con’s bidding isn’t also working for Obama’s handlers. As much as I think that the United States deserves a lump or two of blowback for decades of horrendous and destructive foreign policy, I’d like Peace On Earth far more than an empire in shambles and the smug satisfaction of knowing I was “right”.