Report: Obama To Offer Israel Inclusion In US Nuclear Umbrella

Is Obama as stupid as he seems? If this report is true, apparently he is.

U.S. President-elect Barack Obama's administration will offer Israel a "nuclear umbrella" against the threat of a nuclear attack by Iran, a well-placed American source said earlier this week. The source, who is close to the new administration, said the U.S. will declare that an attack on Israel by Tehran would result in a devastating U.S. nuclear response against Iran.

But America's nuclear guarantee to Israel could also be interpreted as a sign the U.S. believes Iran will eventually acquire nuclear arms.

Secretary of state-designate Hillary Clinton had raised the idea of a nuclear guarantee to Israel during her campaign for the Democratic Party's nomination for the presidency. During a debate with Obama in April, Clinton said that Israel and Arab countries must be given "deterrent backing." She added, "Iran must know that an attack on Israel will draw a massive response." Clinton also proposed that the American nuclear umbrella be extended to other countries in the region, like Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States, if they agree to relinquish their own nuclear ambitions.

Let's count just some of the ways this is moronic.

The most obvious thing about this is its irrelevance. They don't admit it but nobody doubts that Israel has a nuclear arsenal of its own that can retaliate against Iran (it really doesn't take too many to ruin your day). So Obama's promise is we'll bomb the cities Israel has already bombed? Talk about sloppy seconds.

If Iran gets the bomb their use of it is simply the biggest problem but not the only one. Why is it so tough for India to deal with Pakistan? Because they know where that road ends...a nuclear exchange. The world's track record isn't so impressive in dealing with Iranian aggression and sponsorship of terror over the last 30 years, how much weaker will it be once Iran's actions are backed up with nuclear weapons? Put simply, they won't need to use the bomb to benefit from it. Obama's umbrella does nothing to address that.

How much would this guarantee be worth anyway, especially during Obama's presidency? This is a guy who seemingly backs away from everything he says at some point (for example, his pledge that Jerusalem should be Israel's undivided capital. That lasted a whole 2 days before he backtracked from it).

This reported plan makes it seem like Obama is already conceding that Iran will get the bomb. Apparently he's no longer so sure that his awesome diplomatic skills are going to get the job done. That's very different than what we heard during the primaries, isn't it?

And lastly, I thought the idea that Iran was developing nukes was a neo-con scheme to get us to attack Iran for their oil or something. You mean it might be true that Iran wants nuclear weapons? My how times have changed.

So basically Obama's plan (again, if this report is true) comes down to Israel getting a worthless promise and Iran getting nuclear weapons. That's a hell of a plan Sparky! I'd rather send some UAW guys over to deal with Iran than Obama. At least they drive a hard bargain.

One of the problems in trying to deconstruct something so gobsmackingly stupid as this umbrella idea is, is it usually leaves something out. In this case I left something really obvious and important out....this is predicated on Iran being afraid of a counter attack. Who besides liberals believes this? Iran has been attacking the west for 30 years and has never faced major retaliation. Why would they think our retaliation would suddenly go from zero to ELEVN!!!! for someone else? And in the meantime, there'd be a lot of dead Jews which is kind of the point of the whole nuclear weapons exercise to begin with. No one who has been paying attention to Iran would but it's trust in the reasonableness of its leadership (and I'm talking about the Mullahocracy, not their current nut job President).

Thanks to Anonymous Coward in the comments for the prompt.

posted by DrewM. at 10:52 AM

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