The president's policy over the past year, of reaching out to Iran, was in the hope that the Iranians would respond positively and provide a way out of the current difficulties that the international community has with Iran.
As has become clear, the Iranians have rebuffed the initiatives of the president for a better relationship. By the same token, his policy of engagement has now exposed the Iranian regime, for what it is, and their unwillingness to try and find a negotiated outcome here.
Still, some delusions persist, as if our years of quiet talks with Iran and approval of European efforts to talk to Iran didn't demonstrate our willingness to use diplomacy instead of force and so earn the support of allies for sanctions as a step in between:
And that creates the basis I think for widespread support for moving to greater pressure on Iran, in an effort to persuade its leaders to change course and to acknowledge that they will not pursue nuclear weapons.
I think that one of the benefits of the president's policy has been that it has contributed to very broad support in the international community as well as here in the region.
And that is the direction in which we are headed, for a new U.N. Security Council resolution, which in turn will provide a legal platform for individual countries that may wish to take more severe action, economic action.
We can't get China, Russia, or even Brazil, to agree on sanctions that hurt even now. Who is Gates fooling, here? Any sanctions we can get with the sainted international community's blessings will be so weak that they will be meaningless. And any tough sanctions that we apply and ask for voluntary compliance in enforcing will be ignored by enough countries to make them meaningless.
And besides, the sainted international community (and our Left) has always had a trump card to play when it comes to looking the other way as Iran goes nuclear, as the Al Arabiya interviewer asked:
The prevailing view in the Arab world is that the U.S. avoids talking about Israel's nuclear arsenal. Does this weaken the American campaign against the Iranian nuclear program morally and politically?
It's funny how the Islamic world can't solve its problems until some Israeli-related issue is resolved first. At some point, when does that claim become obviously an excuse to do nothing?
For a while, the Moslem world and their Leftist allies in the West chose to blame George W. Bush (and the dreaded Neo-Cons) for the lack of progress in Moslem issues. But with Bush gone, they're transitioning back to the traditional game of blaming the Jews.
