A major victory for President Obama as Iran moves ahead with nuclear power amibitions...

[Subdivisions]

X-post from GD (who don't seem to be particularly interested in this)...

President Obama has exhibited master diplomacy in heading off what would surely have been World War III. Today, http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x4512324">Iran is well into installing nuclear fuel into the Bushehr nuclear power facility despite ominous warnings and posturing by Israel that doing so would result in preventive action against the nation that was listed by former president george w. bush as one of the "Axis of Evil".

President Obama and the United States has apparently exerted enough pressure on Israel in order to discourage Israel from attacking the Iranian facility before the Iranians could begin inserting radioactive fuel rods into the reactor at Bushehr. If Israel had attacked Iran in order to prevent the Bushehr plant from being brought online, it would have been the beginning of a third global war that would have surely involved Russia, who has been assisting Iran in it's nuclear power endeavors and monitoring the radioactive materials in Iran's possession to ensure that the material is being used to generate electricity and safe-guarding it against any redirection to a weapons program.

Considering that we know of recent meetings (and at least one snub) between Israel's Binyamin Netanyahu and Russia's Dmitry Medvedev, it is clear that President Obama and his administration, including Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, have paved the way for Iran to proceed with their peaceful nuclear power ambitions. This represents an extraordinary victory for President Obama and it means that the Iranian people can now breathe a sigh of relief knowing that not only will they now reap the benefits of the electricity generated at Bushehr but they will also not have to worry that their peaceful activities will result in violent war.

So, congratulations to President Obama and his administration and double-congrats to the Iranians for standing their ground and moving forward with their peaceful energy program in the face of such an ominous and looming threat of attack. Because of the efforts of all involved, instead of a violent and potentially nuclear world war that would have left no one on the planet safe, we have a continuing paradigm that will most likely leave Iran intact for the foreseeable future and a world that is spared the lunacy and sadness of a violent global conflict.

[jaxx]

1. K&R for war averted.

Whew!

[zipplewrath]

2. This is one long supposition

Basically, you don't know what he did, or how he did it, or if he did anything at all, but you're just sure he was successful.

Look, I'm not particularly critical of the Presidents handling of this issue. I think he's done vastly better than we could have hoped for from McCain, not to mention Bush's attempts. Bu the Russians have forced all of this recent activity and it isn't clear what Israel could do, even if they decided to do such a thing. It isn't the easiest mission for them, and the Iranians have managed to protect some of it from aerial attack. We don't really know what is going on here and it is a tad soon for handing out congratulations.