December 31st Deadline Came And Went With A Whimper
Nothing, but nothing, will move President Obama from his role as our procrastinator-in-chief. He had set a year end deadline months ago for the Iranians to agree to the U.N. plan to ship uranium out of the country for enrichment. At the time the administration said that they were going to take the deadline seriously.
This means that they had months to develop a plan for the obvious eventuality that Iran would thumb it's finger at us. Months to prepare the plan for sanctions or whatever. Months to develop the plans for implementation. Months to confer with our allies regarding the plan. Months to make sure that the U.N. or anyone else the administration wanted to run the plan by was on board with it. All with an eye towards hitting the ground running on January 1, 2010.
The reason to have been prepared was twofold. One is so that this enemy and all of our other enemies might truly belive that there is some actual bite behind the Obama words. Not that sanctions would run on the same level as a missile attack to take the installations out. But it certainly would have been a start. The other would be to in some way begin to try and neutralize the Iranian nuclear weapon capability.
True to form however, the Obama administration deadline came and went. It was as if it was a surprise to everyone that the calendar would someday turn to a new year, and the promise of action would turn into the action itself. It is an embarrassment, yes. But more importantly it is negligence of the worst kind. Almost as if the president wants to make the United States a laughingstock, and vulnerable as well.
Is there no one in the president's party with the gumption, resolve and love of country that is willing to step up and call him out? Apparently not. This is the statement from Secretary of State Hillary Clinton yesterday:
(Washington Post) "It is clear that there is a relatively small group of decision makers inside Iran," she told reporters traveling with her on the first leg of a nine-day trip across the Pacific. "They are in both political and commercial relationships, and if we can create a sanctions track that targets those who actually make the decisions, we think that is a smarter way to do sanctions. But all that is yet to be decided upon."
I say it again. Administration negligence at best. Throwing the United States in front of a bus at it's worst. It is as if this deadline came as a surprise to the administration.
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