President Obama has signaled Iran that the United States would accept an Iranian civilian nuclear program if Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei can back up his recent public claim that his nation “will never pursue nuclear weapons.”
Oh sure, the president's supporters will argue this is just about justifying tighter sanctions (and maybe that "last resort" of military means) by tricking Iran into rejecting our reasonable request.
But given other events regarding Russia and North Korea, why should we believe this defense? The obvious reason for the offer is to buy time by getting Iran to pinky swear that they don't want nukes and then saying we need time to test Iran on their promise--so no attacking Iran while we are hip deep in promising diplomacy, Israel!
Conventiently, the test period will extend into mid-November. Well, not a test period so much as the time it will take to confirm that we can't confirm that Iran has changed their nuclear policies one bit.
It's a strange world in Washington, D.C., isn't it? NASA says a major mission is an outreach to the Moslem world and our diplomats craft a "space" program designed to avoid any foreign crises before the election by reassuring foes that we will retreat faster after the election if they just won't pursue us in the next 7 months.
UPDATE: Here's another attempt to get space:
[There was] a statement by the Palestinian foreign minister to the effect that administration officials had advised the Palestinian leadership to “sit tight” during the present election year — until Obama no longer need face the electorate and thus its displeasure for forcing concessions upon the Israelis.
Great.
