Russia has made a surprising announcement that it has decided to help Iran begin “going nuclear” on August 21st by giving Iran the uranium it needs to activate the Iranian nuclear reactor at Bushehr. Russia is doing so “despite US demands” to not do so. According to the link below, Iran will soon begin producing electricity with nuclear power from the reactor. The story relates that the uranium from such a reactor would normally not be able to produce weapons-grade uranium, but the world does not know what is being done at Iran’s other nuclear facilities scattered around Iran, hidden deep inside mountains, etc. Russia’s action means that Iran will soon be a nuclear power, and one can only wonder how soon it will have nuclear weaponry as well.
The USA and the West had previously thought that Russia would cooperate with a sanctions program vs. Iran, but Russia now has “interpreted” the UN sanctions in a way where they will have no meaningful effect (this was no surprise to steely-eyed realists). Perhaps the only people who are really surprised by Russia’s action are the ever-gullible western diplomats who believe whatever they are told by the rivals of the West during diplomatic “talks.”
The link observes: “Russian officials did not say why they had decided to move ahead with loading [nuclear] fuel into the Bushehr reactor.” Allow me to offer my opinion on why Russia chose this time to switch course and openly help Iran become a nuclear power. All nations, including Russia, have been watching President Obama’s pitiably weak performance vis-à-vis North Korea and China. China pressured Obama to hide the real extent of China’s military threat to the USA in an overdue Pentagon report. Obama meekly caved to China. The USA then sent a carrier task force to conduct naval maneuvers to “send a message” to North Korea after it sank a South Korean warship. North Korea growled at Obama and China told Obama not to exercise in the Yellow Sea off South Korea’s western coast. Obama meekly caved…again, this time to North Korea and China. Emboldened by Obama’s displayed weakness as a president, China also asserted “indisputable sovereignty” over the South China Sea, which is an international body of water bordered also by Vietnam, the Philippines, Singapore, and Malaysia.
Russia saw Obama weakly surrender to a series of “tests” arranged for him by China and North Korea. After Russia saw that Obama had no resolve within himself to counter any of China’s or North Korea’s assertiveness, Russia apparently decided that Obama is such a weak leader that his “demands” can safely be ignored with out any fear of serious consequences. Therefore, it went ahead with its announcement to help Iran go nuclear, brushing aside US objections. At least this apparently indicates that Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and Former Governor Sarah Palin have at least one thing in common: It would seem both have doubts that Obama has the “cojones” to lead the USA and the Western World (see my August 9th blog for the media link reporting Palin’s comments on this subject).
Obama’s policy of giving in to bullies will only invite a higher level of bullying from those and other nations. When will Obama display some backbone against Russia, China, Iran and North Korea (all nations listed in Ezekiel 38-39 as allies in the latter-day Gog-Magog alliance)? Many American voters and many key decision-makers in the western world are likely asking themselves this same question.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/30/AR2010073005664.html
