Charlie Rose

robdverity  04/18/2010 01:18 AM Report

NYT (Sanger et al) 4/17/10: Gates memo. "Several officials said the highly classified analysis, written in January to President Obama’s national security adviser, Gen. James L. Jones, came in the midst of an intensifying effort inside the Pentagon, the White House and the intelligence agencies to develop new options for Mr. Obama. They include a set of military alternatives, still under development, to be considered should diplomacy and sanctions fail to force Iran to change course."

So buck up you jingos. There's hope. Obama with his twisted reasoning and fear of neocons will come thru for you. Reason and peace have yet to trump preemption and killing. We do what we do best - and will continue - right into the toilet of oblivion. And not least of all, it's what Israel wants / demands of us.

ShalomFreedman  04/16/2010 06:47 AM Report

Sanger said it all. The Administration is doing nothing to stop Iran except working for another round of empty sanctions. Ahmadinejad taunts the world and President Obama and gets away with it. The best estimate now is that Iran will be a nuclear power within a year. By that time perhaps China and Russia will have agreed to have another round of discussions about another possible implementation of another possible set of sanctions.

EyesOnYou  04/16/2010 12:26 AM Report

Such pleasure to listen to Joshua and Nunn for an analysis without agenda.

Now I await for a leader courageous enough to say: "The world cares about Iranian nukes about as much as it cares about NK's nukes".

Message to neocons: We won't be going to war with Iran and we won't view attempts to start one kindly.

robdverity  04/15/2010 06:31 PM Report

As Israel's proxy warrior, it will only be a matter of time until Obama over-amends for the "insult" remark and does something irretrievable re Iran; which long term will destabilize the world interminably. Anything for an ally.

ShalomFreedman  04/15/2010 02:30 PM Report

David Sanger said it all. They are still fiddling around trying to get weak sanctions against Iran which they know will not stop Iran. Who do they think then that they are fooling? The Obama Administration seems to be saying that it is not going to stop Iran from going nuclear. Remember Iran uses surrogates, Hizbollah and Hamas to do its dirty work. So when you talk about a nuclear attack from a non- state actor, consider Iran's use of its surrogates.

Iran is reportedly less than a year from a nuclear capability. Jaw Jaw Jaw does not seem in this case an adequate answer.

REMant  04/14/2010 11:43 AM Report

Well, nuclear material in the hands of ppl with no national allegiance is obviously more dangerous than in the hands of a nation state, provided, of course, that that nation doesn't try to use it clandestinely. But it is exceedingly unlikely that some terrorists could secretly make a bomb, and if one such were produced it would not likely be a secret where it came from. Both China and Russia have interests in Iran and will want to limit sanctions and that perhaps is well, as it may encourage the regime to condescend enough to consider its interests. I doubt that China views the US as a weak and unreliable partner, but rather as one that needs to stop projecting its problems on others, give up its own imperiousness, and face reality. It's been a very long time since the UN was set up, and the fall of the Soviet Union should be seen as a portent, instead of, as we have for some time viewed it, the triumph of democracy, American-style. The currency and financial issues are analogous. A century or so ago, we would have been viewed by most as unsound on both economics and diplomacy, and that is, I think, the way the Chinese see us, if, when we do things like selling Taiwan weapons, they do not view us as still at war with them. I believe the trade imbalance will sooner or later take care of itself, tho no one may like the result, and I just hope it does not spill over into politics.