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| Center-left Israeli politician Ehud Barak, once close to President Obama, now accuses him of trying to pass on the problem of a nuclear Iran to the next American president. |
Barak: U.S. Attack on Iran Would Be Easy
- Michael Wilner
Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak told the Washington Institute for Near East Policy that an American military attack against Iran's nuclear facilities would take a "fraction of one night" to complete should President Obama order one.
Barak said such an attack would be easier for the U.S. than last year's planned campaign against Syrian President Assad's chemical weapons infrastructure. "It's a simpler operation to get rid of the [Iranian] arsenal," Barak said.
"The American administration changed its objective from no nuclear military Iran to no nuclear military Iran during the term of this administration," Barak said, adding that the U.S. "is perceived to have been weakened" over the last several years.
(Jerusalem Post)
More Soothing American Efforts on Iran - Zalman Shoval
To our great remorse, it appears that the scenario of American firmness is not on the horizon. The Obama administration is interested in presenting a deal with Iran as a lofty diplomatic success and will therefore minimize the significance of its flaws.
At the beginning of his tenure, Obama repeatedly declared his objection to a policy of "containment," but it appears this could precisely be the real and negative result of the approach taken with Iran.
The writer is a former Israeli ambassador to the U.S.
(Israel Hayom)
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2 comments:
An attack could mean war. Since we are not in the MidEast, they would go after our allies. Soon, Israel and the U.S. could be embroiled in a large scale Middle East war. America doesn't want the war, as polling clearly shows. Our Congress doesn't have the guts for war, which is why Obama threw Syria to Congress. It showed their hypocrisy, which doesn't stop them from talking tough about Russia. I can cite many examples of the previous Republican administrations placating Russia and MidEast countries, and creating the Iranian problem and a terrorist base in Iraq. Obama didn't create any of this, but he has been working to contain it diplomatically with Sticks and Carrots. You can say this about any diplomacy; that it only is currently effective, and imply it passes down the problem. Now, the Bush Administration created an empowered Iran, so you can say they passed the problem to the net President. And because of the way their administration functioned, we all knew it would be a Democrat President. Nevertheless, short of an attack that might bring war, a war that Congress doesn't have the guts for,and the American people have already shown a weariness towards, this administration is doing the best it can with the crap it was dealt with the economy and MidEast that Bush left it, and the health care problems that Republicans have failed to address since Nixon. It's disingenuous to blames Obama when he actually takes action---but these people don't think it was enough---but these same people weren't screaming at Bush, "Why are you attacking Iraq, a country with nothing to do with 911, and in doing so, destabilizing the entire region and empowering the country that disturbs just about every other country in the MidEast" I saw scholarly articles claiming this would happen, but didn't hear Israel, Republicans, or American supporters of Israel worry about any of this.
Barak [whose is not a hawk] was not advocating an attack, but rather accusing President Obama of raising his personal political concerns [wanting to pass the baton to the next US President] above the national interest.
I understand that you're trying to provide context [in your comments about Bush] but President Obama has had plenty of time to establish his own foreign policy precedents. In fact, he is making some of the same mistakes Bush did [wasting his military capital in Libya, for instance].
Kindly allow me to correct you on of the last points you made. There is strong evidence that in 2003 [prior to the onset of the 1st Iraq War] the [then] Prime Minister of Israel Ariel Sharon warned Bush that intervention in Iraq was a mistake.
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