The time to confront Iran was in 2001-2003. The US still had a strong and able military, and Iran even saw the US as a means to protect itself from al-Qaeda and Sunni militants. Instead Bush spent 4000 American lives and billions of dollars replacing Iran?s enemies in Iraq with an Iranian puppet government. In 2008, Iraq?s trade with Iran, financed by American tax dollars, came to $4 billion.
Initially, Bush ignored Iran. Then when Iran took advantage of the Iraqi situation to increase its influence, Bush recognized the threat and decided to leave it to the Europeans to resolve. During his second term, Bush saw that the Europeans were getting nowhere, so he decided to give the Iranians the silent treatment. Meanwhile, Iran grew from a nuisance to a regional superpower with potential nuclear capabilities. Finally, in his last year in office, Bush tried dialog, but with an exhausted military spread too thin, this dialog was a joke to the Iranians. All this time Iran strengthened their economic ties to Russia, China and even a few of our NATO allies.
This is the situation Obama has inherited. So what the heck does anyone expect him to do? |
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