Obama is Chamberlain not Churchill!

Submitted by Allen Z. Hertz (China), Jul 1, 2013 at 00:54

As early as September 2009, I published "Obama: Walking on Israel in Chamberlain's Shoes?" That essay presciently opined that President Obama is angling for a general settlement of all Middle Eastern questions including both Iran and Israel's nuclear weapons, and the matter of the Palestinians. And everything since then has only confirmed that President Obama really is out shopping for some diplomatic wallpaper in the same way that Chamberlain bought paper from Hitler in 1938. Let's test the likelihood of Pipes's speculation that President Obama might soon suddenly opt to strike Iran's nuclear-weapons development facilities.

Firstly, such a strike would conflict with the President's core ideology which is self-professedly philo-Muslim and Third-World, i.e. in line with Lenin's anti-imperialism. Secondly, President Obama has systematically purged from his administration those figures like General Petraeus and Dennis Ross known to support a tougher line on Iran. They have been replaced by the likes of Hagel, Kerry, Brennan, Rice, Power, Dobbins and Malley. Why? All of these new appointees are on record as favoring containment of a nuclear Iran. Thirdly, there is no sign that President Obama is actually preparing the American people for the contingency of a USA strike on Iran.

Studying the President's political posture, it seems clear that he is more afraid of enflaming USA public opinion against Iran than he is of Iran's nuclear-weapons and missile programs. President Obama knows that ten years of public opinion polling show that Americans see Iran as "enemy No. 1." Accordingly, the president is extremely careful not to raise public expectations that would box him into a decision to use force against Iran. Perhaps Pipes really means to encourage the President to strike Iran. But in terms of prediction, there is really little that suggests that Obama will ever use force to stop Iran's race to nuclear weapons.

To the contrary, all signs suggest that President Obama is out shopping for a general Middle East settlement including the nuclear weapons of both Iran and Israel, as well as the question of Syria and the Palestinians. President Obama's philo-Muslim and left-liberal dream is buying diplomatic wallpaper from Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei just as Chamberlain bought paper from Hitler. This would be a repeat of the Munich 1938 scenario, with Israel playing the role of Czechoslovakia. Thus, there really isn't much chance that President Obama would ever order a military strike on Iran. And, what is more, I would bet that Daniel Pipes probably already knows that.

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