subject: Does President Obama Mean Business With Iran? [print this page] President Barack Obama has made his strongest statement yet in that he will not allow Iran to obtain a nuclear bomb, because the development would trigger an arms race that would spread throughout the Middle East.
Mr. Obama stressed that he will stand by Israel even as he tries to persuade Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not to strike the Tehran regime unilaterally. Obama insisted that when he warned Iran against acquiring the bomb he wasnt bluffing and made it clear that a military strike is an option
The Israeli government recognizes that, as president of the United States, I don't bluff. I also don't, as a matter of sound policy, go around advertising exactly what our intentions are, he told interviewer Jeffrey Goldberg. The problem with this is that the Iranian regime has declared that it will continue its research and has the right to develop whatever it feels it needs for its own defense. This is true but they have also stated their intentions to use nuclear weapons against the US and Israeli targets once they get them.
I seriously doubt if the President is going this far out on the limb just to make some kind of bluff. I personally cant see where it would be acceptable at all for the US to allow the Iranians to develop nuclear weapons.
There are several other considerations that he has in mind which would make it a disaster for the Iranians to have nuclear weapons. First of all the Iranians have been known to sponsor terrorism and terrorist organizations which brings the question of nuclear proliferation into mind. I certainly think that the Iranian regime is far too radical to ignore. I believe that if they develop nuclear weapons that they will allow terrorists to have them.
The next potential problem is the possibility of an arms race in the region. The Iranians do have political rivalries with some other countries in the region and if they gain these weapons some of the other nations in the region will feel that they have to respond in kind.
Obama gave the 45-minute interview as he prepares to address AIPAC, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, on Sunday and before he meets Netanyahu the following day.
The US and the world community are currently pursuing economic sanctions against the Iranian regime which may be working but have not had the effect of stopping their progress in this area.
The Israelis believe that the Iranians are very close to producing a nuclear weapon but the US does not exactly share in this agreement. President Obama thinks that the sanctions have served to isolate the Iranian regime and that they have a good chance of forcing the Iranians to come to grips with reality and back off. I personally believe that this is possible and that we should allow sanctions every possible chance to work before we opt to use military force. We see the consequences of the sanctions but if actual military force is brought to bear against Iran the fallout might be totally different.
The answer to the question that this article presents is no. I dont think the president is bluffing at all when he says that the Iranians will not be allowed to develop nuclear weapons. Military Ring Express
