Nuclear Russian roulette

Earlier this week President Obama signed a nuclear arms reduction treaty with Russia proudly claiming it’s benefits. He stopped just short of waving the treaty and pronouncing “peace in our time”. This morning in the Washington Post, Charles Krauthammer writes;

Obama says that his START will be a great boon, setting an example to enable us to better pressure North Korea and Iran to give up their nuclear programs. That a man of Obama’s intelligence can believe such nonsense is beyond comprehension. There is not a shred of evidence that cuts by the great powers — the INF treaty, START I, the Treaty of Moscow (2002) — induced the curtailment of anyone’s programs. Moammar Gaddafi gave up his nukes the week we pulled Saddam Hussein out of his spider hole. No treaty involved. The very notion that Kim Jong Il or Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will suddenly abjure nukes because of yet another U.S.-Russian treaty is comical.

Wasting no time to prove that his treaty with Russia will do no such thing, today Obama set a final deadline for the Islamic Republic to provide a bit of transparency on it’s nuclear program according to the Washington Times;

On Iran, Mr. Obama raised expectations for a September international summit in Pittsburgh, saying the invited nations will take stock of whether Iran has complied with international demands over its nuclear programs. He also denied reports that Washington tried but failed to achieve agreement on new sanctions here, saying the statement was what he wanted.

“It provides a time frame,” Mr. Obama said. “If Iran chooses not to walk through that door, then you have on record the G-8 to begin with, but I think potentially a lot of other countries, that are going to say we need to take further steps.”

Further steps? More deadlines that Iran will ignore? Actually, I think the Obama Administration and Old Europe are hoping Israel will strike at Iran’s nuclear facilities and bomb them into dust as Joe Biden hinted earlier in the week. That would free them up from making any tough decisions. The same tactic Old Europe used in regards to Iraq – sit on their hands until someone else does what needs to be done, and then condemn the one one who had the guts to act. That way they’re absolved of having to act in a politically unpopular manner.

Obama’s random deadlines and imprecise brow beatings just make it more likely that Israel is going to get tired of the Old World’s procrastination.

So now that there’s no George Bush to save the world from itself, Israel has to step up and be the man among children – and then take their lumps in the form of stern rebukes from the UN’s General Assembly.

Category: Barack Obama/Joe Biden, Foreign Policy, Terror War, United Nations