Reading the president's sales pitch to Steve Inskeep of National Public Radio (It very much hurts my feelings that Public Occurrences, so similar to National Public Radio, has not yet received an invite to the White House. It makes me feel we don't have any influence.), I want to know the president's explanation for the change from all of his prior statements that "A nuclear Iran cannot be contained." The U.S. goal now is containment for 10-15 years.
I think I know why the president changed: he does not have the stomach to "bomb, bomb, bomb; bomb-bomb Iran." Apparently he does not have the stomach even for a cyber-attack as he and the Israelis unleashed at Natanz in 2009, destroying 1/5th of the centrifuges. Obama only has the stomach to posture about using military force. For example, when things hit a particular snag in Lausanne the president ostentatiously ordered the Pentagon to get ready its most powerful bunker-busting bomb for a potential strike at Fordow. That was just muscle-flexing and the Iranians knew it. Obama wants these negotiations to succeed even if it means Iran gets a nuclear weapon. It will be somebody else's problem then:
"...the option of a future president to take action if in fact they try to obtain a nuclear weapon is undiminished."
"If they haven't changed, we still have the options available to me — or available to a future president that I have available to me right now."
I think I know why the president changed: he does not have the stomach to "bomb, bomb, bomb; bomb-bomb Iran." Apparently he does not have the stomach even for a cyber-attack as he and the Israelis unleashed at Natanz in 2009, destroying 1/5th of the centrifuges. Obama only has the stomach to posture about using military force. For example, when things hit a particular snag in Lausanne the president ostentatiously ordered the Pentagon to get ready its most powerful bunker-busting bomb for a potential strike at Fordow. That was just muscle-flexing and the Iranians knew it. Obama wants these negotiations to succeed even if it means Iran gets a nuclear weapon. It will be somebody else's problem then:
"...the option of a future president to take action if in fact they try to obtain a nuclear weapon is undiminished."
"If they haven't changed, we still have the options available to me — or available to a future president that I have available to me right now."
PUNT!
What happened to change the president's mind? There is a stark difference between his 2012 UN speech and his 2013 UN speech and repeatedly he has pointed to the election of Hassan Rouhani in 2013 as a turning point, but the president has never said what changed in Iran with Rouhani's election that was so profound that he is now willing to let Iran have the bomb 10-15 years from now when Rouhani is out of office. The president has never explained either of those things: what changed with Rouhani's election and why nukes for Iran after Rouhani is gone! That doesn't even make sense.
