So, under the headline “Gates Says U.S. Lacks Policy to Curb Iran’s Nuclear Drive,” the New York Times reports that according to anonymous government officials: “Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates has warned in a secret three-page memorandum to top White House officials that the United States does not have an effective long-range policy for dealing with Iran’s steady progress toward nuclear capability.”
Gosh, golly and no kidding. The tragicomic touch is that Gates, or anyone else in President Obama’s administration, would feel compelled to treat this information as “secret.”
The failure of U.S. policy may be news to Obama, but for some time now it’s been glaringly obvious to most of the planet. While Obama has been yakking, bowing, apologizing for America, humiliating U.S. allies and dismantling both America’s defense capabilities and capitalist system, Iran’s rulers have been mocking him, scoffing at deadlines and flaunting their bomb program. This weekend, in response to Obama’s bread-and-circuses nuclear summit in Washington, Ahmadinejad has been hosting his own nuclear conference in Tehran — demanding that the U.S. be suspended from the International Atomic Energy Agency, the IAEA.
Obama has provided quite a show this past year or so – conjuring crises over U.S. medical care and Israeli housing plans in Jerusalem, while Iran’s rulers have been killing dissidents in the streets and closing in on the bomb. Having been entrusted with the White House, and the defense of America and its constitution, Obama has been treating the world to such statements as his recent observation that the U.S. remains a military superpower “whether we like it or not.” It’s hard to escape the conclusion that he doesn’t like it at all. Even the plans Obama endorsed during his campaign for much tougher sanctions on Iran have been repeatedly diluted and delayed.
As the clock ticks toward a nuclear high noon, the White House has displayed no effective strategy either for stopping Iran’s bomb program, or “containing” a nuclear Iran (good luck). Actually, there’s no effective strategy visible for defending U.S. interests on a good many fronts. Obama is banking on a surge to prevail in Afghanistan, but plans to start pulling out troops by next year. He’s doing peace deals with Russia, while Russia is firing up Iran’s Bushehr reactor, selling air-defense missiles to the Iranians and doing big deals to arm Iran’s best buddy in America’s own backyard — Venezuela. He’s counting on yet more peace-processing with the Palestinians, and buddying up with Syria, on the gaga theory that this will help bring peace in the Middle East. Meanwhile. Iran is arming the Palestinian terrorists of Hamas in Gaza, and Iran’s Hezbollah terrorist clients, courtesy of Syria, are piling up missiles in Lebanon.
Where’s all this heading? On the current course, the American superpower will have its own citizens staggering under rising taxes and regulatory overload, and burdened with crushing debt. The U.S. will be depending on Russia to ferry American astronauts into space, terrorists will be holding forth in U.S. courts, and Iran will have the bomb. There’s nothing secret about any of this — except, apparently, within the confines of the Obama White House. Maybe Gates should fire off another confidential memo to Obama, noting that the lack of effective U.S. policy is by now the world’s least well kept secret.
And that is…
a very well done job on the part of a radical and subversive administration.
They are getting exactly what they wanted, a world in which America’s presence and power are diminished.
And don’t worry, this is only PART I of the program.
What the radicals and the subversives want to do once America has no longer the power to defend Freedom I can only imagine…
Your main error is believing Bush had a different policy towards Iran than Obama…
yeah right ..it’s Bush’s fault.
stand up like a man and look who is in the white house now.
you are as spineless as Obama is. …and Obama is a clown. Nothing but a CLOWN. A STUPID CLOWN.
You seem frustrated. You are simply in denial if you think Bush had a different policy towards Iran than Obama; Do not delude yourself that I ever saw Obama as anything but the anti_American, anti free market, anti free speech, that he is.
Bush might have had a different policy if the left-wing dickwads in the CIA had not succumbed to BDS and written and leaked an intelligence assessment that said poor peaceful little Iran had scrapped their bomb program. Can you imagine what Bruce Stein and his buddies in the MSM would have said if Bush had pursued aggressive actions against Iran in the face of that report? It cut off that option for Bush, and that is exactly what it was intended to do. We now know that it was total BS and was done for purely political reasons by the leftards who were so blinded by their hatred for Bush that they didn’t see or care about the ramifications. They will have a great deal to answer for when hell breaks loose.
Stein, you are wrong. Bush never tore down Israel which is the de facto actor. Not saying I support Bush 100% but if you cannot see the difference between Bush and Obama you need glasses.
True Bush did not do much in the way of Iran. But He did have 2 other wars to deal with at the time that were being heavily protested. Now that Iraq is pretty much over Obama has a chance to simply challenge Iran.
I know I am frustrated by this, as Iran is now the biggest external threat to US interests. They export more terrorism than Al Qaida and will soon have the bomb. All the while they have domestic discontent that we could have backed. On this last note we could have softened them without any need to rattle swords.
Bush liked Israel even though 75% of American Jews voted for Kerry.
Bush took decisive action when he thought it was in the best interests of the US or its allies.
The CIA continually tried to undermine him so he got false reports of Iran stopping the program which he was prudent to believe.
Richard Armitage, buddy of State Department Colin Powell, tried to sabotage the Bush administration by leaking the Plame story and hoping Cheney would take the rap. In other words, Bush was deceived by enemies up high in the government.
That’s why he was seen to be soft on Iran.
Bush did some idiotic things, sure.
.
Obama does the same thing, except 10X as much. That makes it all of a sudden a smart thing to do?
BHO’s approach to Iran is the same as that by Indonesia or Kenya or any Third World country; his regime views now the US as one of them, whether we like it or not.
Having said that, this policy of doing nothing with regards to a nuclear Iran has been also the policy of Bush, Rice, Gates and the military brass.
It’s a policy that the Middle East petrodollars bought sometime ago.
That is correct, but unluckily it is not the whole truth: corruption is a powerful force but it is slightly less dangerous than the arrogance which moves the internationalist brotherly friends who are the puppeteers of this administration. Soros and friends have decided that they have the supreme wisdom to reshape history.
Their stupidity and arrogance are the main danger.
Their ideologies, all dictated by nihilism, are the supreme danger.
And nuclear iran is the first monster caused by stupidity and arrogance.
The slumber of true Wisdom generates monsters.
“internationalist brotherly friends”… “Soros”
You are obviously being anti-Semitic, so why do you think using circumlocutions is necessary? Why not have the guts to come out and say that you blame the Jews for this?
It is an insult to call Soros a “Jew”.
He turned Jews into the gestapo and does all he can to drown Israel in sin.He is getting more money from the dems bailout money to be spent on keeping Obama in office.Soros is a traitor.
Of course the fact is…’nuclear iran is the first monster caused by…’ the most radical Islamic messianic beliefs.
What’s odd about this “memo” is that it was issued at all. I
would imagine the Sec. of Defense is as “in” the inner White House
circle as it is possible to be….so why the “memo”? Why not just
communicate this to the president orally? That’s what I would
have done.
Also, why has this information become public (now?). This is
definitely not a “leak”. It’s a calculated pre-emptive action
signifying something is in the works.
Why now? Probably because some Jew inside the Pentagon just got all wee wee’d up.
What’s this supposed to mean? There are lots of Jews serving with dedication and honor within the military and Defense Department. (I know some of them.) Or would you rather the Pentagon follow the lead of Deputy Secretary England’s Muslim advisor Hesham Islam?
Actually, I think “policy” means “will” in this context. I’m sure the pentagon has plenty of plans for disarming Iran, it’s not the plans that are the issue. I guess Gates is on his way out since it looks like everything is going to be ending badly, and not for a lack of policy selections.
Why would you think the US government desires regime change in Iran? The US (Carter) brought the dictators (that parade as religious people) to Iran 30 years ago and has worked tirelessly to keep Iran’s dictators in power for the last 30 years. Why do you think Iran’s dictators laugh in the USA face?
We start winning by not buying any mid east oil and embargo all food, oil, and steel to/from Iran, Saudi, Syria et al (embargo by land, sea, and air: no phones, no lights, no internet)…Just like we did Japan in June 1940; not in your history book is it.
I think Obama sees the Iranian dictators that parade as religious as peers and equals. I think Obama looks forward to the Iranian dictators that parade as religious having a nuclear bomb and putting America in its place. Obama calls for no Jews in parts of Jerusalem; Obama demands a terror state, like Iran, be established on the West Bank/Gaza even as America is fighting the exact same type people in Iraq/Afghan.
Question: What has the half life of thirty seconds.
Answer: Obama’s Iranian nuclear containment policy.
Before the bomb, Iran is only a knife at Israels back.
But after Iran develops the bomb and threatens Israel with it,
look for a large crater of glass where Tehran used to be.
Obama, and his democrat dictatorship clowns will forever be blamed for allowing this to happen.
Obama is voting “present” on a long-range policy for dealing with Iran’s steady progress toward nuclear capability. He occupies the Oval Office, and the button he’s pushing is “P”.
I wouldn’t worry about all that other stuff if Iran is successful in building a nuclear bomb, because most likely it will be WW3. I would fully expect Iran to use the bomb the first day it is operational. There is a separate rationale for suicide-bomber nations. They are not thinking about tomorrow. They are only interested in martyrdom. Think about the mind-set, the selfishness, of someone who blows themselves up among strangers and friends – or those who support this practice.
They do not care about Sharia Law (that is why I say they don’t care about tomorrow, not because of the bombing). How could they? It is oppression. They care about their core beliefs – to die in Jihad, which will mean heaven. These people are most likely subconsciously desperate to escape Sharia Law. Most religious people accept a certain tragic reality between their flesh and the divine. Sharia Law is on the flesh side, and I highly doubt there is any love for it among Muslims.
The reason this is true, that dying in holy war is greater than establishing Sharia Law, to them, is because of the Iranian focus and hatred of Israel. So, they are not interested in establishing anything, because when they focus on Israel they lose credibility to establish Sharia. It is more likely they are blinded by hatred. Therefore, they are selfish (bombers), or cowards (supporters of bombers).
No they would not use it the first day…they would give it to one of their affiliated terrorist groups for deployment on a barge…
I’ve always speculated Gates agreed to stay on in the first place to be the policy adult protecting the DoD institution from Obama’s inexperience and incompetence. Furter speculating – the leak of the memo might correspond with Gates having had enough and laying the ground work for his departure.
Of course, the real danger is Obama’s incoherent policy itself, which Ms. Rosett nicely skewers here. One thing I would add to her list: the incorehent Gitmo / internment policy provides disincentives to capturing terrorists. The incentive is to kill them before interrogation, which misses the opportunity to collect real-time intelligence leading to other terrorists.
http://libertyatstake.blogspot.com/
[For a light hearted take on our present peril]
It took Bush 8 years but he still couldn’t stop Iran from working on getting a bomb. Why should I trust Obama to do it in 4 years?
Whether you like it or not and whether you believe it or not: Bush and Obama are both committed to keeping the tyrant dictators that parade as religious, that run Iran, at all cost; If there is a coup in Iran the USA would send troops to put down the coup and keep the current thugs; absolutely. If you think I am wrong it is because you are brainwashed by foxycnnabcbsmsnbcnpretal…
Nobody says more and nails more points with a minimum of words than does Ms. Rosett. She is a treasure.
The real tragedy will be China. Their foolish instransigence re sanctions guarantees a hot ME war within the next few years. Israel will end up terminating Iran’s existence as a country, and oil will hit $300. The West and the USA can make it through $300 oil, but China can’t. When unemployment hits 50% in China, there will be civil war.
You post points out the insanity of not becoming energy independent. And chasing technology/economics that are out 10-20 years is not going to cut it. We have coal, oil, natural gas in abundance and we could easily – sans regulations – generate the preponderance of electricity from nukes.
Bill Gates was the second in command to Bill Casey. (Remember him? Reagan’s CIA appointment. I wouldn’t even be surprised to learn that it was Bill Gates who “halped” Bob Woodward complete his Casey book.
Nor am I surprised there’s such virulent hatred against Israel. Been there since Eisenhower’s days. When Eisenhower resented the Israelis, back in 1956, joining England and France, trying to take back the Suez Canal.
Plus, the elder Bush hated Israel! Which means he brought this into the CIA, back when Nixon appointed him director. And, Alan Dulles also hated the Israelis. You just can’t fool me!
Of course, what happened to the CIA, who got no handle on 9/11, beforehand. Is that all their hires suddenly went Ivy League. And, as white as white on rice.
The whole Mideast policy from the Bush camp was supposed to “halp” the saudis. And, guess what? They’ve run through our treasury. They’ve discredited our military. And, we’re stuck in a quagmire, administration in. And, administration out.
Israel, however, for all her lip service of friendship has known the truth. And, will take care of her own business. Does that mean Iran heads into the Straits of Hormuz? We’ve got a navy that can’t even take on Somali pirates! (And, those people get all their speed boats, GPS equipment. And, ammunition, from the Saud’s.)
I expect the saud’s to lose. How? They’ll diseased. Spoiled. Hated by all other arabs, PLUS, all other muslems. And, something will come along to push them all to hell.
I fear there no way to keep Iran from building a bomb if they want one. So how about this for a policy. Make it clear to Iran that we will not bother them but if they or one of their terrorist proxies uses a bomb, Iran ceases to exist 30 minutes later.
If Iran nukes Israel, obama will issue a strongly worded speech and THAT’S ALL.
Constitutional democracy in Iraq was an excellent Iran policy, if only American democrats hadn’t spent six years and every mote and mite of energy backstabbing it.
The long and the short of it. Amen.
Two incompetent administrations in a row and Sarah Palin mooted as a contender in the next cycle. One would almost yearn for a parliamentary system except for the example of Gordon Brown. What happened to Churchhill’s “except for all the rest”?
Actually, Obama’s policy *does* seem to be a well kept secret. He is a Marxist, not a Socialist. The principle of Marxism is that the only way to fight oppression is to destroy the old order, and build a new one. As a Socialist, he is a dismal failure. As a Marxist, he is brilliant. Within a decade, the new (even more oppressive – the inevitable result of Marxism) regime will be firmly in control.
Military officers as well as DOD head Gates, who is in the chain of command, have the DUTY and RESPONSIBILITY to resign their commissions and go public when they professionally judge their superiors to be putting soldiers or the nation at risk.
After resigning they have an obligation to speak out publicly and loudly.
No one ever does this. One must therefore assume their superiors are correct or that they cowardly fail in their duty. Get out, Gates!
Obamas plan is to construct a scenario in which we, bankrupt and defenseless, must roll over for his New World Order or risk being nuked.
The question of prime interest must be: Who will interdict his nefarious project and what methodology will be utilized to finally rid America of the evil cabal he heads.
Those of us committed to moral and legal means are watching.
Unfortunately, I think there is too much confidence that Israel can deal with Iran. I doubt it.
Nuclear weapons are here to stay and to proliferate, it is inevitable. It is time for nations like Israel to seriously deal with this reality instead of justifying doing nothing by repeating the sanctions mantra. There are ways to limit the extent of devastation and ensure that the country keeps running after a bomb detonates over a major city. One first step is for Israel to stop offering to give away land that will be needed to evacuate urban populations. The settlements on the West Bank may turn out to be the safest place in Israel.
Don’t be so sure about that. Iran, like everyone else in the region, uses the “Palestinians” as a club and propaganda tool to increase its regional leverage and divert its population. Time after time Middle East regimes and populations have slaughtered or expelled Palestinians when they out lived their usefulness or presented a threat. Iran has no interests in a seperate homeland for these people. They are merely Sunni scum to be dealt with when the time comes. You can be sure that if and when Iran launches a nuclear attack on Israel that as many Palestinians will be victims as Israelis. This may not fit in with the Obama adminstration’s narrative but that is the reality whereas Obama’s vision is pure fantasy.
Since Nuclear weapons are the big topic these days why haven’t the major networks said anything about the defense meeting that took place in the Carolinas recently that included the heads of Homeland Security, DOD, most intelligence agencies, FEMA (the list is all inclusive) where certain military officers stated that they are expecting the death toll to be in the 10′s of millions sometime within the next 10 years as a result of the large number of Nuclear warheads/weapons missing from the Soviet arsenal. We can debate all day long about Iran’s Nuc’s but we have an immediate threat to worry about that is much more freightening than Iran’s threat. Iran knows that once they lift off headed in the direction of Israel or the US they will be wiped from the face of the earth. The home boys that could destroy a city have nothing to lose but their lousy, worthless lives.
Bush’s policy on Iran . . . Look to the east of Iraq and west of Afghanistan for those that are geographically illiterate.