By Kevin C. Donnelly
This is one of those things that you never wanted to see happen. As much as I disagree with Obama on many, many issues, we needed to be strong on Iran, we needed to stop their pursuit of nuclear weapons, for both our security and the security of the Middle East and Israel’s security as well. Unfortunately, as much as I had hoped that Obama would at least take this threat seriously enough to do something, anything, outside of issuing ever lengthening “deadlines”, he has done nothing. Worse, Iran is mocking him, America, and the world, and Obama does not have the resolve to even appear to be effective.
This was to be expected, I suppose, and now that Russia has laughed at Obama’s “reset button” and began a push for a new types of nuclear weapons, Iran followed the Russian government’s lead and has laughed off Obama…again. In fact, they mockingly issued Obama and other world leaders and ultimatum of their own. Once again we can see the effectiveness not only of Obama’s “smart power” but also of the UN’s ineffectiveness. The response from the Obama administration thus far has been the foreign policy equivalent of Einstein’s definition of insanity:
Iran dismissed an end-of-2009 deadline imposed by the Obama administration and its international partners to accept a U.N.-drafted deal to swap most of its enriched uranium for nuclear fuel. The deal would reduce Iran’s stockpile of low-enriched uranium, limiting — at least for the moment — its capability to make nuclear weapons.
The U.S. and its allies have demanded Iran accept the terms of the U.N.-brokered plan without changes.
Instead, Tehran came up with a counterproposal: to have the West either sell nuclear fuel to Iran, or swap its nuclear fuel for Iran’s enriched uranium in smaller batches instead of at once as the U.N. plan requires.
This is unacceptable to the West because it would leave Tehran with enough enriched material to make nuclear arms.
Every time that Obama gives Iran a new “deadline,” Iran simply laughs him off and continues their pursuit of nuclear weapons. Obama half heartedly denounced the violence against the Iranian people by their barbaric leaders after the rigged election in June. Meanwhile, Iranian opposition leader, Mir Hossain Mousavi continues to lead the opposition movement in Iran amid even more threats from the regime. Even as the violence is on the uptick once more, Obama has remained conspicuously silent. Perhaps this is one of the election promises he actually intended to keep, to reach out to dictators, which, judging by his governing thus far, means to give them free reign to do whatever they like. My point here is not to cast Mousavi as an angel or anything of the sort, but it was very clear that the election was a fraud, that the brutal violence against the Iranian people was and is very real, as is Ahmadinejad and the Iranian hardliner’s pursuit of nuclear weapons, and in none of these situations has Obama expressed leadership or resolve. It is a giant failure, in fact.
Actions speak louder than words, and it is quite clear to me that Obama will never get involved in anything that involves something he perceives to be a sizeable political risk to his chances of re-election, and if that means not taking the tough measures that need to be taken in international affairs, he will not do it. I believe this to also be the reason why he did not provide the troops requested for the Afghanistan effort by Gen. McChrystal, why he foolishly poked our friends in the Czech Republic and Poland in the eye on missile defense, has continually criticized Israel, and snubbed allies such as Great Britain and Norway. He would rather upset our allies than take tough stances against hostile and despotic governments. Though our media and liberal friends certainly will not acknowledge this, other world leaders certainly have taken notice and are capitalizing on Obama’s weakness. You have only to follow international affairs closely to recognize this pattern.
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