Iran Hostage Crisis 2009?

It is now a little over a month since Roxana Saberi, an American Freelance Journalist, was arrested and detained in Iran, allegedly for purchasing a bottle of wine.

Saberi has been a strident critic of Iran's human rights violations - which is probably the real reason for her detention.

On Monday, a spokesman for the Iranian foreign ministry said that Miss Saberi had been engaged in “completely illegal and unauthorized” work. Presumably, the spokesman was not referring to Miss. Saberi's "unauthorized" and iniquitous wine consumption.

On November 4, 1979, a group of Islamist students - which included the current president of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad [according to several of the former hostages] - took over the American embassy in Tehran and held 52 U.S. diplomats captive for 444 days. Jimmy Carter took a lot of heat for that debacle and his incompetence in dealing with the matter forever tarnished his presidency.

However, during the presidential campaign, Barack Obama stated that he wished to employ a carrot approach in dealing with Iran. And I would assume that the Iranians would be more than happy to release Miss Saberi in exchange for a few significant policy changes and a generous dose of appeasement.

Perhaps Miss Saberi's arrest is merely Iran's way of coaxing Barack Obama to the negotiating table. For even a well-intentioned leader and artful diplomat like Barack Obama sometimes needs a little bit of prodding to engage in diplomatic capitulation.

Nevertheless, if Obama is sincere about his oft-stated desire to reach out to the Iranians, now would be the opportune time for him to light up his peace pipe and reciprocate Iran's latest good-will gesture.

Ultimately, Miss Saberi's iniquitous swig of wine could inadvertently bring about an endearing relationship between Barack Obama and the Mullahs of Iran, and if that indeed happens, it will have been well worth the price of Miss Saberi's peaceful and benevolent abduction.

However, if Obama fails to reward the Iranian regime for its recent kidnapping and goodwill gesture, it could have broad repercussions for future Iranian/US relations.

But most importantly, Barack Obama would be wise not to follow in the footsteps of President George W. Bush who falsely maligned the Iranian regime and labeled it as part of the so called "Axis of Evil". For if anyone is evil, it is certainly not the ineffable leaders of Iran, but the iniquitous, wine-guzzling degenerate, Miss Roxana Saberi.