Obama Without a Policy to Curb Iran

Who sprang the leaks?

An article in today's New York Times entitled "Gates Says U.S. Lacks Policy to Curb Iran’s Nuclear Drive," written by David E. Sanger and Thom Shanker, describes a secret three-page memorandum sent by U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates to top White House officials warning that the U.S. has failed to develop a long-range policy to contain Iran's nuclear progress:

"One senior official, who like others spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the memo, described the document as 'a wake-up call.'

. . . .

Mr. Gates’s memo appears to reflect concerns in the Pentagon and the military that the White House did not have a well prepared series of alternatives in place in case all the diplomatic steps finally failed.

. . . .

Administration officials testifying before a Senate committee last week made it clear that those preparations were under way. So did General Jones. 'The president has made it clear from the beginning of this administration that we need to be prepared for every possible contingency,' he said in the interview. 'That is what we have done from day one, while successfully building a coalition of nations to isolate Iran and pressure it to live up to its obligations.'”

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/18/world/middleeast/18iran.html?hp

If Jones is willing to claim that an international coalition, including China, Russia, Pakistan, Iraq, Turkey and France which sent representatives to Iran's nuclear summit last week, has coalesced around Obama, how are we to believe anything else that he says?

But more interesting is the timing of this leak. It comes days after we learned, as the result of another leak from within the U.S., that the Obama administration had denied Israel permission to destroy a convoy carrying Syrian Scud-B missiles to Hezbollah and had assured the Israelis that Senator John Kerry would intervene with Assad to prevent the shipment. Kerry failed, and now both Tehran and Damascus are laughing at the Obama administration, which persists in its claim that "Sending an ambassador to Syria who can press the Syrian government in a firm and coordinated fashion...is part of our strategy to achieve comprehensive peace in the region."

Is there a quiet rebellion within the U.S. military against Obama's efforts to appease tyrannical regimes around the world while undermining confidence in the U.S. deterrent capability?

There are apparently those who remember Hezbollah's 1983 bombing of the U.S. embassy in Beirut, which killed more than 60 embassy personnel and U.S. Marines. There are also those who remember how Hezbollah murdered, in the most horrifying manner imaginable, William Francis Buckley, a U.S. army officer and CIA employee, in 1985.