Obama Pitiful On Iran

Too bad the leader of the free world is doing nothing to prevent a terrorist-sponsoring state from nuking up. Take your pick of delightfully snarky headlines on the subject, but here are my two favorites:

Success At Nuclear Talks! Iran Agrees To....MORE TALKS!
Unreal: U.S. nuke talks with Iran won’t include talk of sanctions

Here's what happened:

Iranian state television later reported that the negotiators for the seven nations agreed to hold further talks before the end of October.

Western diplomat sources confirmed such an announcement was planned and said preparations were also underway for the International Atomic Energy Agency to visit Iran's new enrichment facility near Qom before the next meeting takes place.

Oh, and guess what else? Remember all of Barack Obama's tough talk on how Iran was going to get hit with crippling sanctions and that they're on notice, blah blah blah? Eh, forget it:

The United States will not push for sanctions against Iran in Thursday’s multilateral talks on its nuclear program in Geneva and is prepared to talk one-on-one with Iranian negotiations if such engagement appears “useful,” senior administration officials said Wednesday.

The officials also said that while gaining access to inspect Iran’s uranium enrichment facility near Qom is “critically important,” the U.S. won’t walk away from negotiations if Iran refuses.

This must be that 'smart power' that we heard so much about during the campaign. Too bad it's so easily mistaken for cowardly naivete that will have fatal consequences.

It's not like this is the first attempt to talk with Iran, you know. For example:

On Iran’s nuclear program in particular, the Bush Administration sought to handle the issue primarily through multilateral diplomacy, which have been underway with little progress since 2003. In view of the following list of meetings and events on the Iranian nuclear issue, it is difficult to see why the Obama Administration believes that this time the outcome will be different:

October 2003 - The foreign ministers of France, Germany, and Great Britain travel to Tehran and persuade Iran to agree to stop enriching uranium and to sign the Additional Protocol to the Non-Proliferation Treaty. The EU-3 also dangle the prospect of economic concessions if Tehran cooperates fully with the IAEA. Iran turns over a declaration to the IAEA admitting to 18 years of covert atomic experiments, including the unreported uranium enrichment at Natanz, although it continues to deny that this was for a weapons program

November 24, 2004 - Secretary of State Colin Powell said “The United States has been supportive of the Europeans’ efforts.”

July 19, 2005 - Iranian President Mohammad Khatami proclaims that Iran will not forsake the right to produce nuclear fuel and that suspension of enrichment will not be permanent

December 25, 2005 - Tehran formally rejects an offer from Moscow to enrich uranium for its nuclear program in Russia. Iranian officials insist upon Iran’s right to enrich uranium on its own soil.

January 10, 2006 - Iran resumes nuclear research, triggering Western condemnation

March 29, 2006 - The U.N. Security Council unanimously adopts a statement calling on Tehran to halt its nuclear work.

March 30, 2006 - The five permanent U.N. Security Council members and Germany warn Iran that it must heed the U.N. statement insisting that it stop its nuclear work or face isolation. Iranian Foreign Minister Mottaki dismisses the warning. IAEA Director-General ElBaradei urges Iran to be more forthcoming but also says he thinks sanctions at this time would be unwise.

May 31, 2006 - Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice announces that the U.S. is willing to join the EU-3 talks with Iran if Tehran agrees to verifiably suspend uranium enrichment activities.

June 6, 2006 - EU High Representative for Common Foreign and Security Policy Javier Solana meets in Tehran with senior Iranian government officials and presents them with fresh proposals aimed at persuading Iran to abandon its uranium-enrichment program.

June 30, 2006 - Iranian Foreign Minister Mottaki says Iran will not respond to the international incentives package before August, despite U.S. and EU pressure for Tehran to answer by July 5.

September 9–10, 2006 - Two days of “productive” EU–Iranian talks end inconclusively with a vow to meet again the following week.

October 4, 2006 - European Union (EU) foreign policy chief Javier Solana says four months of intensive talks have brought no agreement on suspension of Iran’s sensitive nuclear activities and adds that the dialogue cannot continue indefinitely.

February 25, 2007 - President Ahmadinejad says that Iran’s nuclear program is unstoppable and, in a show of its growing technical prowess Iran reportedly fires a rocket into space for the first time.

April 10, 2007 - Foreign Minister Manuchehr Mottaki says that Iran will not accept any suspension of its uranium enrichment activities and urges world powers to accept the “new reality” of the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program

July 19, 2008 - Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs William Burns accompanied Solana and representatives of the P5&1 to meet with Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili in Geneva but no progress is made.

August 2, 2008 - An informal deadline lapses for Iran to respond to an offer from the United States, Britain, France, Germany, China, and Russia for talks on its disputed nuclear program.

March 20, 2009 - U.S. President Barack Obama calls for “engagement that is honest and grounded in mutual respect.” Iran cautiously welcomes the overture, saying that it wanted to see “practical steps.”

May 25, 2009 - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad rejects a Western proposal for Iran to freeze its nuclear work in return for a freeze on further U.N. sanctions and rules out further talks on the issue.

September 25, 2009 - President Obama announces that western intelligence agencies have uncovered a covert Iranian uranium enrichment plant and warns that “Iran is breaking rules that all nations must follow.”

September 30, 2009 - Ali Akbar Salehi, head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization, made clear that Iran has ruled out discussions about the newly revealed uranium enrichment facility or halting its uranium enrichment efforts. “We are not going to discuss anything related to our nuclear rights, but we can discuss about disarmament, we can discuss about non-proliferation and other general issues,” Salehi told a news conference. “The new site is part of our rights and there is no need to discuss it,” he said, adding Tehran would not abandon its nuclear activities “even for a second.”

For all of you who believe it is possible to talk Iran out of its quest for nuclear weapons...just look at how often that has been tried in just the past few years. IT. WON'T. WORK.

The only way to win this battle is to treat it like a battle...and win it. It is only when the fight is over that the winner gets to declare the terms of peace, not the other way around. Unfortunately, Obama's staked out a position so ridiculous on the use of force that his administration has seriously proposed giving cookies to try to make nice.

Barack Obama is committed to an utterly foolish course of action that has been proven to fail time and time again, with no reasonable expectation of any different result in the future. The only difference now is that Iran is closer than ever before to developing nuclear weapons, and is very likely to so during Obama's first Presidential term. If he does not change his policy, America will pay in death.

There's my two cents.