Source: Daily Beast:
By Leslie H. Gelb
The White House press corps should ask President Obama this question: You’ve told Iran’s leaders that if they come close to marrying a nuclear warhead with a missile that can hit the United States or our allies, they should expect a U.S. military attack on their soil. Specifically, Mr. Obama, you said your policy on Iranian nukes was “prevention,” not “containment” or “deterrence.” You were not nearly as tough, specific, and threatening to North Korea.
Why?Is North Korea less dangerous than Iran, or more? Is President Ahmadinejad crazier than President Kim Jong-un, or less? Is Pyongyang so far down the line toward developing deliverable nukes that you can’t stop them anymore, while Tehran still has a ways to go? Is it that Israel is more important to American security than South Korea and Japan? The very questions are spooky, and the answers Mr. Obama eventually will have to supply, in one fashion or another, will be dangerous. But given, what he’s said about Iran and not said about North Korea, he’d better ready those answers now.Mr. Obama and his team deserve lots of credit for their handling of the crisis on the Korean peninsula. They’ve sent tough military signals, deploying bombers and missile defenses without any provocative bluster. They’ve avoided looking weak by begging for negotiations, but they’ve plainly not closed the door to talks initiated by Pyongyang. They’ve waited patiently for China, the one party capable of restraining North Korea, to grow frustrated with Pyongyang’s escalation. All quite skillful.But both Tehran and Pyongyang couldn’t help but notice the contradiction at the center of Washington’s anti-nuclear proliferation policies – and that awareness will make both countries less willing to compromise. Iran’s diplomats see that Mr. Obama is being much tougher on them than anyone else, especially North Korea. They’re thinking that Pyongyang’s pressing ahead with its nuclear weapons program has given pause to Washington’s hardline and made Americans more willing to live with nukes there than in Iran. So, expect Tehran to stiffen its own position, as seems to have happened already in the failed meeting with the major powers last week. And Pyongyang’s leaders will see that Washington’s treatment of them is much more careful than its handling of Tehran, and also attribute that to their unbending determination to go nuclear. They, like Iran, will be more resistant to compromise.
Categories: Americas
President Obama is playing politics, as all politicians do. Nuclear danger can only be averted if all parties come to agree to get rid of all the N weapons in our small world! Remember, we all have to die one day and face our maker and explain what we did!