The recent Iranian election will be a slow test for President Obama's desire to rebuild the United States of America's relations with Muslim countries.
The complications between these two countries seems endless: Iran is a Shiite nation; the United States has troops in Iraq, which is mostly a Sunni nation and Iran's neighbor.
Iran took control of the US embassy in 1979 and held 44 Americans hostage through the end of the Carter administration.
Plus, according to some of the hostages from 1979, Iran's current president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, was one of the student leaders who took over the embassy.
President Bush called Iran one of the leading terrorist nations in the world.
How should President Obama react to the fact that Iranian's are challenging the results of their presidential election? First, President Obama would be wise to ignore or downplay some of the past complications between the US and Iran.
In some ways Mr.
Obama will be like a doctor in urbane scrubs choosing which pieces of historical illnesses to use.
There is no need to discuss the differences between Shiite Muslims and Sunni Muslims.
Iraq and Iran are separate nations, treat them separately.
Recent Presidents from the United States clearly indicated their dislike for Iran; President Obama has tried hard to reach out to Muslim nations and indicated he would discuss trying to normalize relations with Iran.
He would be wise to continue to talk gently about Iranian issues, including the current election controversy.
We must recognize the importance of history.
Medical professionals contemplate this as they put on their Koi uniforms, and they work like a leader of a nation piecing necessary bits of history together.
To ignore the fact that the Iranians took over the United States embassy in 1979 would cause President Obama controversy in his own country.
As he attempts to improve relations with Iran, Mr.
Obama must have his eyes wide open to possible Iranian treachery, and he needs to respect those in the US the Iranians have offended.
Finally, President Obama must protect the United States against terrorism.
If Iran is sponsoring terrorist organizations, the leader of the United States needs to make it clear that this is unacceptable.
The result of the Iranian election could have a large impact on Iran view of the use of terrorism.
Trying to treat patients while wearing your medical apparel like la rose scrubs is similar to trying to predict how a disagreeable nations may react to another nation's new leader.
President Obama will need proper intelligence to help him prepare for whatever type of leadership comes out of Iran.
This of course will have to be discreet and within the rules of proper diplomatic behavior.