Hot Dog Diplomacy

From an AFP report: [emphasis mine]

The United States said Monday its invitations were still standing for Iranian diplomats to attend July 4 celebrations at US embassies despite the crackdown on opposition supporters.

President Barack Obama's administration said earlier this month it would invite Iran to US embassy barbecues for the national holiday for the first time since the two nations severed relations following the 1979 Islamic revolution.

"There's no thought to rescinding the invitations to Iranian diplomats," State Department spokesman Ian Kelly told reporters. . . .

The State Department has said that the invitations are largely a symbolic gesture of goodwill and that the July 4 barbecues were not intended to take up substantive policy matters.

So while Iranian mullahs are beating and killing their own people for holding peaceful protests of a blatantly rigged election, the U.S. is throwing a wienie roast for them as a "gesture of goodwill."

Indefensible. Damn, I miss George Bush.

Update:

The White House has rescinded the invitations to Iranian diplomats to attend July 4 celebrations at U.S. embassies around the world.

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said nobody from Iran RSVPed to come, and at this point, the invitations are no longer valid. "

Given the events of the past many days, those invitations will no longer be extended," Mr. Gibbs said.

Again, Obama comes around, but only after getting cornered on this issue at yesterday's press conference. Another case of too little, too late -- "leading" by bringing up the rear.