Will the Obama administration make peace with Iran?

While Americans have been distracted in recent weeks by a worsening economic downturn, Michelle Obama’s toned arms, and “Bachelor” Jason Mesnick’s apparent inability to choose between identical, fame-hungry, tanorexic airheads, Iran has been going about its business like it’s a separate country or something.

On Feb. 4, Iran launched a satellite into orbit for the first time. The satellite is called the Omid (pronounced oh-MEED). It means hope — as in, “I really hope the U.S. doesn’t bomb us just because we launched a satellite.”

In a statement accompanying the launch, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Omid’s mission is, I kid you not, to spread “monotheism, peace and justice” around the world.

The Omid is one small step for a man, and one giant leap for maniacal religious fundamentalism.

Actually, I doubt Iran’s satellites will spread Islam. The only humans to ever walk on the moon were delivered there on a mission named for the Greek god Apollo. As far as I can remember, Neil Armstrong’s spacewalk did not prompt pilgrimages to Mount Olympus.

The U.S. doesn’t actually much care about Omid. It’s a communication satellite; as threatening to U.S. national security as a camera phone taped to a stout pigeon. Unless the Omid lands on someone’s head when it re-enters the atmosphere next month, it poses no danger to anyone.

What gives the U.S. (and Israel and the European Union) the creeps is the Safir-2 rocket used to lift Omid into space.

Although Iran insists the Safir-2 launch was peaceful, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist (or even a brain surgeon) to see a slight problem with Iran’s claim.

The Safir-2 is nearly identical to Iran’s Shahab-3 ballistic missile. Iran’s peaceful satellite launch doubled as a ballistic missile test.

“Peaceful” civilian rockets and deadly military missiles have always been interchangeable. The same rocket that launched astronaut John Glenn into orbit in 1962 was also a workhorse of the United States’ nuclear missile arsenal. Incidentally, the rocket was named after the Greek god Atlas.

The placement of Omid in orbit is a not-so-subtle message to the U.S. and its allies: If Iran ever gets a nuke (it swears it isn’t and won’t), it can deliver said hypothetical nuke throughout the Middle East, South Asia, and even into Central Europe. Omid’s message to the West: Back off.

Iran’s regime has ample reason to try to scare away foreign foes. The country is surrounded on all sides by hostile military forces. The U.S. has more than 200,000 troops, several airbases, and at least one carrier fleet within minutes of Iran. Israel’s military is capable of hitting Iran with conventional or nuclear weapons from the air and from the sea, and it routinely threatens to do so.

If Omid was launched two or three years ago, you can be almost certain the Bush administration would have used it to try to rally U.S. public support for an attack on Iran.

The Obama approach has been markedly different. His people expressed clear annoyance, but didn’t dwell on it. Instead, they launched a charm offensive.

On March 19, Obama released a videotaped greeting to the Iranian people to coincide with the Persian New Year, which falls on March 20. In it, Obama asks Iranians to commit to talking through its problems with the U.S.

“My administration is now committed to diplomacy that addresses the full range of issues before us, and to pursuing constructive ties among the United States, Iran, and the international community. This process will not be advanced by threats. We seek, instead, engagement that is honest and grounded in mutual respect.”

Engagement? Mutual respect? No threats? WTF? After eight years of Bush’s evil-ish/evil/evildoer schtick, Obama’s language almost doesn’t seem real.

Will the Obama approach work? I will ask the Oracle at Delphi and get back to you.

In the meantime, keep an eye on Iran’s current presidential campaign. If Iran’s ruling theocrats allow voters to replace Ahmadinejad this June with a less odious character — someone who doesn’t childishly needle the West or deny the Holocaust, then 2009 may be the year of Omid after all.