Iran has been caught lying about a second nuclear site believed to be located in an underground facility one hundred miles outside of Tehran and capable of housing 3000 centrifuges that could be operational next year. No biggie, according to Iran. And when Israel demanded full disclosure, Ahmadinejad in effect stuck out his tongue and said he owed no such disclosure and that Israel wouldn't dare attack.
At the Summit today in Pittsburgh, U. S. President Obama, French President Sarkozy, and British Prime Minister Brown, publicly revealed this secret nuclear weapons facility. They seemed genuinely shocked, and a little hurt, that the Mullahs have been lying all this time.
President Obama: "Iran is breaking rules that all nations must follow, endangering the global non-proliferation regime, denying its own people access to the opportunity they deserve and threatening the stability and security of the region and the world. It is time for Iran to act immediately to restore the confidence of the international community by fulfilling its international obligations."
He said more, of course, and answered questions, but there was no power in his words. They had all the impact of threatening to send an intractable child to a naughty chair.
Prime Minister Brown: "The level of deception of the Iranian government and the scale of what we believe is the breach of international commitment will shock and anger the whole international community and it will harden our resolve. Confronted by the serial deception of many years, the international community has no choice today but to draw a line in the sand."
There's that line in the sand again. The UN has drawn so many lines in the sand with regard to Iran I would think they've just about run out of desert by now.
China and Russia were like Charlie Brown's teacher: wah, wah, wah. I think we know instinctively they aren't going to help. Germany isn't saying much of anything.
Iran is a country that is actually vulnerable to a blockade if countries would band together and cooperate. They have a large and restless young population and need to import nearly all of their consumer goods and food. Surprisingly, they even import fifty per cent of their gasoline. They have very few of their own financial institutions, and as the Bush administration found out, if those few are boycotted by the world, it's a big problem for Iran.
Of course, America doesn't have the clout it once did and our currency certainly doesn't in a world market. Threatening other countries to cut off our supply of dollars if they fail to cooperate with us might elicit giggles rather than fear these days.
I guess if there's a bright light in any of this, it's that other countries are having to step up to the plate because the world knows the United States won't. There is no force in our president's words and certainly no one expects there to be any in his deeds. He has crippled our CIA. He has left - dare I call them former - Eastern Bloc countries defenseless. He is naive and indecisive. He is either too busy or chooses not to make a decision on the advice given to him by HIS general about how to proceed in Afghanistan. I keep looking for the fringe media to keep a body count as they did with Bush, but nothing yet.
Israel is going to have to count on France and Great Britain this time.
Ahmadinejad means what he says about wanting Israel and all Jews wiped off the face of the planet. I don't think Obama and a lot of people take him seriously. They seem to think he would never risk the repercussions of vaporizing Israel.
He doesn't care. He has the mindset of a suicide bomber and he fully intends to take the rest of his country with him if he has to. If he can rid the Middle East of israel, he will be the greatest martyr of all time. It will be his, and his mullahs, greatest glory.
Why is this so hard for everyone except Israelis to understand?
Perhaps because we haven't had to fight for our very existence for the last sixty years, a virtual thumbnail of civilization surrounded by hobnail boots of uncivilized thugs.
Perhaps if New Jersey began lobbing missiles into Manhattan and sending suicide bombers into cafes and schools and buses, it would begin to get through.
9/11 was one day. One horrible day.
The Israelis live with this every day of their lives.
And now we wag our fingers at a man who threatens their entire state with annihilation and continues, with our tacit blessing, to build the means to do it.
Shame on us.
Imagine that.
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