Joe Biden and his cheerful assessment of Iran's potential nukes

There's been a lot of talk about Joe Biden and the weird laughs, smirks, and interruptions at the Vice Presidential debate. But what he had to say about Iran was chilling.

To a question about the Administration's willingness to stop the Tehran regime from going nuclear, he said what matters isn't Iran's ability to enrich uranium to weapons grade. It's whether it can build and deliver a bomb. His claim is that Iran has no way to send the bomb to a target and that we should all "calm down a little bit here."

In other words, Iran may have made progress toward enriching enough uranium to sufficient strength to build a bomb in the past four years, but that's immaterial. Based on the Vice President's intelligence, Iran isn't close to getting the trigger mechanism, missiles and all the other things needed to deploy a weapon. So don't worry, be happy.

But the reality is far more grim. Enrichment is the hardest thing about building a bomb. Iran has in any case worked to develop missiles and triggers with help from Russians, North Koreans and others.  So, it looks like the Obama Administration now has a new red line on Iran. The mullahs can enrich as much uranium as they wish as long as they "don't have something to put it in."

Wow, this is frightening. Once the crazies in Iran has the enriched uranium, they can get a delivery system in no time. We can't afford to see this scenario played out. Others in the Mideast will want their bomb too. Can you imagine a group of Arab countries with nuclear capabilities?

That's no laughing matter, Joe.

The Brief Against Obama

I want to start a series on the Obama presidency, based on The Brief Against Obama, a wonderful book by Hugh Hewitt, a lawyer who clearly lays out the failures of the last four years.

He starts with a reminder of the famous promises Obama made as a candidate. Of course, the biggest was the “Hope and Change” theme. He said the seas would cease their rise. He promised to revive our economy and keep the unemployment below 8 percent. How have these worked out? Easy answer, right?

Hewitt says there are key arguments against Obama. Obamacare was a disaster (and still hated by many Americans), unemployment is far too high, the 2009 stimulus was a total failure, our foreign policy is in shambles, and he has abused the powers of the presidency. Each of these is huge, but Hewitt manages to clarify them in short, punchy chapters.

Let’s start with the foreign mess we now have, thanks to Obama. He snubbed our friends (think of his disgraceful treatment of Israel’s Netanyahu), ignored the Iranian resistance movement, waited for months before calling for Syria’s leader to depart, led from behind in Libya, cut and ran from Iraq, bowed to the Saudi king/Japanese emperor/Chinese president, tried to “reset” relations with the Russians only to be surprised at that country’s nasty behavior (shades of Jimmy Carter), ignored the brutalities and aggressive actions of North Korea, allowed hard-line Islamic fundamentalists to take over in several Arab countries. Each of these deserves a separate essay, but time is short. Obama’s overall problem has been his idea that the United States will gain in world opinion if we look weak, if we appear ashamed of our past policies, if we seem hesitant to defend our values. The result is what anyone would expect—aggressors of the world no longer fear us and are quite willing to go on the offensive against us and our allies.

More next time as we look at domestic failures of Obama. Oh so many of them . . .

Israel, Iran, and Obama's new tough language

Gee, there must be an election this year? How did I come to that startling conclusion? Besides the endless Republican primaries? Think about what Obama has just done when it comes to Israel. What a U-turn after three years of trying to woo the Iranian mullahs to the bargaining table with diplomacy and slapping Israel, our best ally, repeatedly in the face.


Mr. Obama opened the annual conference of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee Sunday with a keynote whose strong talk on Iran kept the audience coming to its feet. The President took credit for isolating the Islamic Republic diplomatically and imposing a de facto oil embargo that has sent the Iranian rial tumbling. His speech follows an interview last week with the Atlantic's Jeffrey Goldberg in which Mr. Obama went out of his way to call a nuclear Iran "unacceptable." He referred to the "military component" of U.S. policy and said that "I think that the Israeli government recognizes that, as President of the United States, I don't bluff." As startling, he added that containing a nuclear Iran wouldn't work because of near-certain proliferation in the region and that "the risks of an Iranian nuclear weapon falling into the hands of terrorist organizations are profound." Did someone kidnap the real Obama and replace him with another person?? Hard to believe this is the same man who has dissed Israel over the last three years.


The timing of all this is no accident as Benjamin Netanyahu meets Mr. Obama in the White House today amid intense speculation about an imminent Israeli strike on Iran. In an interview with Journal editors on Friday, Eyal Gabbai, the former director general of the Israeli Prime Minister's office, said Mr. Netanyahu's meeting with Mr. Obama "will be the last time they can speak face-to-face before a decision is taken."


The Israelis believe Iran's nuclear programs will soon enter a "zone of immunity," beyond which they may be effectively invulnerable to a non-nuclear Israeli strike. But also driving Israeli fears is the sense that the Obama Administration isn't prepared to use military means if diplomacy, sanctions and covert acts don't persuade Iran to stand down.


Well, no wonder they don’t trust Obama. Those fears are far from groundless. Though Mr. Obama now takes credit for sanctions, his Administration fought Congress tooth-and-nail on sanctioning Iran's central bank. The President only reluctantly signed the sanctions into law as part of a larger defense bill. His aides also worked to stop legislation to cut off Iran from making financial transactions via the Swift banking consortium.


As for military strikes, senior Administration officials have repeatedly sounded as if their top priority is deterring Israel, rather than stopping Iran from getting a bomb. Here’s one example. As recently as November, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said a military strike would have "unintended consequences" and wouldn't necessarily result in "deterring Iran from what they want to do."


It's welcome news if Mr. Obama is now trying to put those fears to rest, but he is also more outspoken than ever in trying to avert Israel from acting on its own. "Do we want a distraction in which Iran can portray itself as a victim, and deflect attention from what has to be the core issue, which is their pursuit of nuclear weapons?" Mr. Obama told Mr. Goldberg—the "distraction" here meaning an Israeli attack.


The question Mr. Netanyahu and Israeli leaders have to ponder is whether Mr. Obama now means what he says. The President has built up an immense trust deficit with Israel that can't be easily dispensed in a week. All the more so when Israelis know that this is an election year when Mr. Obama needs to appear more pro-Israel than he would if he is re-elected.


It's good to hear Mr. Obama finally sounding serious about stopping a nuclear Iran. But if he now finds himself pleading with Israel not to take matters in its own hands, he should know his Administration's vacillation and mixed signals have done much to force Jerusalem's hand. More fundamentally, a President who says he doesn't "bluff" had better be prepared to act if his bluff is called. These are serious times, and we need prayer now more than ever.

The failures of Barack Obama (Jimmy Carter 2.0)

OK, I was bored and started thinking of ways Barack Obama has been a huge disappointment. Here are some, starting with foreign affairs. If I have time and don't get too discouraged, I'll switch to domestic disappointments.

First, there's the Arab world. Wasn't he going to get the angry Muslims on our side after repeated abject apologies for being an American? How has that worked out? Well, according to The Wall Street Journal, not so well--this year, Zogby International found that 5% of Egyptians had a favorable view of the U.S. In 2008, when George W. Bush was president, it was 9%. When will we learn that tyrants and crazies respect strength and resolve, not groveling?

How about trade with the world? Bill Clinton signed Nafta in 1994, which helps facilitate nearly $2 trillion in the trade of goods and services between the U.S., Mexico and Canada. George W. Bush helped get free trade agreements all across the world, from Australia to Singapore to Morocco to Bahrain. Number of these agreements signed by the current president: zero.

Then there's Libya. Obama entered this rebellion with the goal to remove the tyrant Gadhafi. Weeks later, the Libyan strongman is still there, and NATO looks like the Marx brothers. That will be seen by the rest of the world as a failure of Western resolve. Gadhafi will loom as a new threat to spread terrorism to the West.

What other stellar jobs has he been involved with? He has mistreated our ally Israel, he has repeatedly snubbed our best ally England, he failed to back Iranian protestors, he has allowed Afghanistan to spiral out of control, he urges North Korea to act better and get involved in multi-party talks (fat chance), he has been rebuffed by Putin when he attempted to set up better relations with Russia, he has not been able to put a halt to Iranian nuclear enrichment, he has allowed Chavez of Venezuela to build up connections with Iran. And so it goes.

His failure to pursue American interests, his inability to proclaim American exceptionalism, his belief that we are a nation in decline which must be gently guided down the path of senility--all these have disappointed me and so many others. But these failures are eclipsed by his domestic disasters, which I'll try to cover next time. We need a change in 2012.