Given Iran’s well established pattern of behavior (and Russia’s, and China’s) we were highly skeptical about President Barack Obama’s “Reset Button” approach to U.S. diplomacy.
And now it seems that the failure of Obama administration’s Iranian engagement strategy is about to shift the focus of U.S. diplomacy from “reset” to “panic.” Reuters reports:
The United States wants the U.N. Security Council to approve a resolution within weeks, not months, laying the ground for new sanctions against Iran over its nuclear programme, the Pentagon said on Tuesday.
U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates spoke to leaders in Turkey, Italy and France about the “urgent need” to move forward on sanctions as soon as possible, Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell told reporters.
Because it works.
Military.com’s Jamie McIntyre reports:
Skeptics of missile defense should take note of Russia’s paranoia about the U.S. missile defense in Europe.
There’s a reason for Russia’s unreasonable stand: Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin believes something many in the U.S. scoff at, namely that the anti-??missile system probably works, and Russia has nothing like it.
President Barack Obama’s desire to reduce the number of nukes is welcome. But he should not sacrifice U.S. missile defense capabilities in order to achieve that goal. Unfortunately, by prioritizing nuclear reductions over missile defense, our President seems to be playing right into Putin’s hands.