World media sources are reporting on the news that the USA, UK and France have revealed to the world that Iran has another nuclear weapons site that had not previously been revealed. The BBC reports that the second Iranian nuclear facility is near the Shiite “holy city” of Qom (see first link). The Iranians have, no doubt, placed that site near Qom in the hope that its location would deter an attack upon it. Personally, I don’t think the Israelis would be deterred at all. Even the USA and westerns nation may have to overcome their reluctance about attacking Iran soon.
The UK’s Gordon Brown states the West has “no choice but to draw a line in the sand” over the issue. The second link adds that President Obama warned “Iran will be held accountable to an impatient world” on its nuclear weapons program. These are tougher words than usual from western leaders, but we are reaching the point where western leaders will soon be required to “put up or shut up.” Iran has years of experiencing that “tough words” from western powers are all bluffs and don’t need to be taken seriously. Iran has relied on firm commitments from Russia and China to veto any serious UN sanctions vs. Iran, so the chances of the “world community” imposing truly tough sanctions on Iran are minimal. Iran knows this has always been the case, so they are likely to continue to regard Obama, Brown, Sarkozy and others as paper tigers who talk tough but have no backbone to back their words with military actions.
At some point, President Obama and other western leaders will start being branded with the “W” word that became affixed to the Carter administration during its spineless actions toward Iran decades ago. The “W” word is “wimp,” and I recall Carter and his crew being branded (appropriately) for their helpless handwringing during the Iranian hostage crisis. Obama and his administration will also risk being branded as “wimps” if they make tough talk, but don’t ever do anything meaningful to stop Iran from gaining nuclear weapons. The fourth link below is an article from the Jerusalem Post reminding the West that it has already abandoned its previous “line in the sand” talk about a September deadline for demanding Iran cease its nuclear program. Such serial retreats by the West only increase the chances of war. Either the Israelis will attack Iran sooner because they see it is pointless to wait for the dithering West to ever “get serious” about the Iranian threat, or Obama and the political leaders of the West will finally reach the point that they have no choice but to take military action against Iran lest they be seen as “wimps” by their own voters. Jimmy Carter never recovered from the “wimp” label that was pinned on him when he refused to take serious action in the face of Iran’s act of war against the USA. The voters hurled Carter out of the Presidency by a landslide vote in 1980 in order to put a man made of sterner stuff (Ronald Reagan) into the Oval Office.
President Obama’s ratings are steadily going downhill already as American voters like him less the longer they see him in the White House. If Obama keeps making tough talk that is never backed by tough actions [sanctions are not “tough actions”], the American voters could start seeing Obama as looking more and more like Jimmy Carter. At some point, Obama will have to prove to the American voters and the world that he has the moxie to actually back his tough words against Iran with military action. Unlike Jimmy Carter who never did “get it,” I tend to think Obama will recognize the political danger to his presidency that will ensue if he is perceived as a man of mere words instead of real deeds re: Iran. The tougher Obama talks, the more he is locking himself into a course of action where he will eventually have to follow up his tough words with military deeds or his presidency will go the way of Jimmy Carter’s. There isn’t much more time to wait. Iran will have usable nuclear weapons soon. Someone is going to have to act before too long or those Iranian nukes will become realities.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8274903.stm
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/09/25/accuse-iran-building-secret-nuke-plant/
http://www.newsmax.com/herbert_london/obama_iran_missile/2009/09/22/263209.html
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1251804588639
