The World is Misreading Obama on Iran (Obama Might Nuke Iran)

Foreign Policy ^ | Friday, November 4, 2011 | David Rothkopf

[nickcarraway]

The government of Iran, much like many across the Middle East, believes that the Obama administration is so consumed with a desire to undo the wrongs of the Bush era and get out from under the costs of two difficult, hard-to-justify wars in the region that it would never intervene against them militarily. Iranian leaders seem to believe that the United States would not risk another war in the region just to stop their development of nuclear weapons.

The government of Israel, also worried that its number one ally has lost its appetite for complex entanglements in the region, seems to think that by playing the Iran card it can goad the U.S. into action that will restore the bonds between the two nations. Israeli leaders believe that they can translate their perception of Iran as an existential threat against them and a brazen, rising regional hegemon into a new renewed U.S. commitment to the region and closer ties with Israel.

Both are wrong.

According to the U.K. newspaper the Guardian, which has an extraordinary package of stories on the growing Iran risk and the escalation of that risk associated with an upcoming International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) report that will reveal game-changing progress by Iran in its efforts to gain nuclear weapons capabilities, even America's closest allies in Britain believe "President Obama has a big decision to make in the coming months because he won't want to do anything just before an election." Wrong.

[mkjessup]

The “open mic” gaffe was done on purpose. Sarkozy and Obama want to distance themselves from the upcoming Israeli attack, even though they have both assisted in the preparation.
Obama is glad to have Israel take this responsibility off his hands.

I have my doubts about that, but as always: 'time will tell'.

An interesting scenario you've painted however.

[Recovering_Democrat]

Hussein will only attack Iran for votes. It will be an election year move. He embraces those who hate Israel, so it’ll be a tough call for the regime.

[nickcarraway]

You’ve totally misread Obama. He was anti-war when Bush was ib charge, When Obama’s in charge, “war is good.”

[ImNotLying]

He would nuke Arizona before he would nuke Iran.

[x_plus_one]

Could be misleading propaganda just out there to buy time and stall the opposition into confusion. When Israel gets nuked all bets are off on who goes next. The moslem dreams of neutralizing the enemy(US), destroying israel and being the last man standing are within reach. They own the executive branch of the US government.

Too bad so few grasp the picture.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks nickcarraway.

[SJackson]

Middle East and terrorism, occasional political and Jewish issues Ping List. High Volume

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[rmlew]

But in the end, as dangerous as an attack might be militarily and politically, if the President believes there is no other alternative to stopping Iran from gaining the ability to produce highly enriched uranium and thus manufacture nuclear weapons, he will seriously consider military action and it is hardly a certainty he won't take it. From a domestic political perspective, right now Obama's strong suit is his national security performance. For the first time in years, he has taken the issue away from the Republicans. Right now they simply cannot attack him as being weak or assert they understand defense better. That is why they are so silent on the issue.
Sure we can. We pursued an unauthorized, illegal war to overthrow Khaddafy, following the mistake of some of our NATO allies. We helped overthrow a bad regime, but one that was helping us fight Islamic terrorism and which had ended its active WMD programs. In fact some of the proponents of the war, had wanted to send Libya military aid last year. Instead of analyzing what was going on on the ground and who the players are, we followed the reckless policy of France and helped groups allied to Al Qaeda. Today, Al Qaeda's flag flies over parts of Libya. That is aiding an abetting the enemy time of war. Incompetence and a failure to lead but to rather follow the lunacy of some allies is no excuse. It is a reason to lose an election.

PS. What is with all of these pieces taht don't even contemplate the idea that Iran could be a threat to us with nukes?

[ZULU]

If he nukes Iran, he deserves another peace prize.

Never happen.

[rmlew]

Why would we nuke Iran? We have bunker busters. And we have ICBMs that can act as launch vehicles not just for nukes but for solid depleted uranium warhead as a kinetic energy weapon A 1000KG warhead lands with force close to .12 Kilotons, focused on a small area (.5 meters). A few of those would destroy or crack open the shell of any facility. This isn't an air bursting nuke, but something closer to GPS guided meteors. And then follow with B-1b or B-2 bombers with bunker busters and then perhaps something fun like a themobaric warhead.

[Jonty30]

I like things that go BOOOOOOOOM, silence, BOOOOOOM!

That’s the only reason I need.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

It would certainly make for a spectacular October Surprise.

[Karliner]

Obama nuking Iran when he has a ROE stating Americans cannot fart near a muslim, hahahahahahahahahahahaa, oh great satire!

[llandres]

“BS. To nuke anyone you must have cojones, and our president has proven ..he has none.”

That’s right. And villains like Ahmedinejad share BHO’s idealogy of hate for his two targets - Israel and America.

And while I’m ranting, it just galls me that BHO gets all this credit for eliminating top Al Queda guys, and that he’ll probably run on that next year. A) he’s the recipient of much good groundwork laid by GWB et al, and B) he always takes the coward’s way out by using nothing but drones, killing but never capturing. He destroys MUCH valuable intel that could be gleaned for our national security, simply because he (and Holder) are political cowards on interrogation and Gitmo.

FUBO.

[llandres]

The night BHO got elected, I despaired for our country’s safety - in all aspects.

[llandres]

“He got away with Libya. That didn’t do much for him in the polls. What effect does Libya have on us? Iran is a different story.”

If people would dare to think the (previously) unthinkable, his “foreign policy” would be easily predictable. He’s driven to get rid of leaders like Gaddafi and Mubarak because they’ve left Israel alone, then replace them with radical Muslim Brotherhood types whose primary goal is to eradicate Israel.

He’ll continue with this in all applicable ME countries, protecting tyrants, like Ahmedinejad, who openly threaten the destruction of Israel - and us.

[meatloaf]

That’s a good point. That means Obama is looking at keeping the presidency (getting reelected) vs. letting Iran proceed.

I guess we’ll find out if he really is a Muslim at heart.

[llandres]

“Do you know which Osama belonged to?”

Shi’ite, like the Ayatollas and Ahmedinejad.

[Hemingway's Ghost]

The “open mic” gaffe was done on purpose. Sarkosky and Obama want to distance themselves from the upcoming Israeli attack, even though they have both assisted in the preparation.

Interesting take.