Joe Biden, the man who defines the term “foot in mouth disease,” said on a Sunday Morning news show that there was nothing we could do if
Nothing in the region flies without our say-so. The Israeli air force would lead a very short if exciting life were it to challenge our air power.
Secondly the Israeli economy in general and the Israeli Defense establishment in particular absolutely depend on the
Despite the "truth" of Biden's statement one must look at it from the prospective of others. Many in the Arab world saw this statement as a green light to Israeli action. They see it as
Biden's statement was extremely careless. It was not what one would expect from a man who was advertised as foreign policy expert. In diplomacy it is critical to choose one's words with precision. Wars have been started over careless statements, especially careless statements of support. Not only was the statement factually false, the U.S. can do many things both in a military aspect and in economic aspect to stop an Israeli attack on Iran, the statement was the wrong thing to say even if were true. Boiled down Biden cried havoc and let slip the (Israeli) dogs of war. It implied that the
The "truth" of the matter is that an attack by
The final insult to our aims is the fact that an air strike would not really stop
If Biden were not so glib with his Sunday morning ruminations he might have at least brought some of these points up. A simple "air strikes at this time would be unwise" would have served the truth better and kept the "option" of air strikes later on as a possibility. He could keep even the NeoCon Likudnick extremists in AIPAC happy by pointing out how air strikes now would actually harm
Biden’s comments were an unfortunate repeat of the cowboy diplomacy of the last administration. If Obama preferred method is to envelope policy in a word fog, Biden seems to prefer speaking first and thinking later. The reserve and nuance of Obama is ill matched to Biden’s stream of consciousness verbalization. Netanyahu has already taken Biden’s statement and ran with it. Ran away and hid with it if we are to be truthful. Obama will now have to wrench Biden’s green light out of Netanyahu’s iron grip. Good thing for us that the Israeli Prime minister has acted like Gollum in the Lord of the Rings, he is merely stroking Biden’s gift and muttering “my precious” over and over again.
Yes the sites could be bombed, the Iranian drive for a nuclear device would be set back but not halted, but at what cost to the
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