Wednesday, March 20, 2013

A Little Hope, Anyway

I have to say that I am starting to think that President Obama is serious about being willing to strike Iran to keep them from going nuclear.

If presented with a clear alternative of Iran going nuclear unless we strike, I think President Obama would give the order to go. My question is what it would take for the president to believe the alternative is clear and the point of decision is now.

What I worry about is that deep down, the president would rather not make that choice and would be relieved if Iran went nuclear in a development that surprises us, allowing him to say it is too late to do anything without greater risk of nuclear launches.

And Israel certainly thinks it got a qualified green light, in case Israel sees striking Iran as necessary. If we think it is too late to act, the president may feel Israel will save the day by taking the risk of things going badly.

What really scares me is that I actually doubt that Iran is affected by whether they perceive President Obama as willing or not willing to use force to stop Iran. I think Iran's rulers are too far gone to believe anything but that God is on their side and wants them to have nuclear weapons, Great Satan be damned.