Obama talks tough at AIPAC, urges caution on Iran
President Obama speaks during the AIPAC Policy Conference at the Washington Convention Center on March 4, 2012 in Washington.
/ JEWEL SAMAD/AFP/Getty ImagesUpdated March 5, 11:40 a.m. ET
At the annual American-Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) conference in Washington, President Obama promised the crowd that the United States would stand by Israel, but he warned against a rush to war with Iran.
The day before his meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, President Obama attempted to assure the pro-Israel audience that the United States will not sit idly by and watch Iran build a nuclear weapon.
"I have said that when it comes to preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon, I will take no options off the table, and I mean what I say," the president said.
The president had a similar message for Iran: "Iran's leaders should understand that I do not have a policy of containment; I have a policy to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon."
But, the president urged more diplomacy, first, and to tame down any talk of military strikes against Iran.
"I only use force when the time and circumstances demand it," he said. "Already, there is too much loose talk of war."
The president urged continued use of sanctions, travel restrictions and efforts to choke off the Iranian regime, but he said that the United States is willing to take military action. "Of course, so long as Iran fails to meet its obligations, this problem remains unsolved. The effective implementation of our policy is not enough - we must accomplish our objective," the president said.
Mr. Obama also reaffirmed the United States' support of Israel and that it respects Israel's right to dismantle Iran's nuclear program through force, which has been a point of contention between Mr. Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Iran's leaders "should not doubt Israel's sovereign right to make its own decisions about what is required to meet its security needs," the president said.
Speaking in Canada, Prime Minister Netanyahu said he was pleased with the president's remarks."I very much appreciated the fact that President Obama reiterated his position that Iran must not be allowed to develop nuclear weapons and that all options are on the table," Netanyahu said. "Most important of all, I appreciated the fact that he said that Israel must be able to defend itself by itself against any threat."
The president and prime minister have had a rocky relationship over the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, and Iran is the latest issue where the two disagree. Netanyahu has wanted the United States to take a stronger stance and recognize Israel's right to strike Iran.
The two leaders will meet at the White House Monday for discussions expecting to revolve around Iran, which both countries say is making progress toward a nuclear weapon.
Meanwhile, the conference does have its detractors. About 100 protestors demonstrated outside the conference site and hacker activists group Anonymous, claimed credit for taking down AIPAC's website Sunday.
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When it comes to what we really want to do about Iran's nuclear ambitions, we all know that the reason we are so powerless to influence our opponent is because we abandoned our dialogue with them decades ago at a very critical time.
JFK did say, "Never negotiate in fear, or fear to negotiate"
The hysteria being fueled on FOX TV is not a valid dialogue or negotiation that represents the position of this nation. We do hear and see political leaders express their ridiculous demands and desires, but we all know that Iranians are not fools and actually enjoy seeing a popular fearful reaction....but again, the Iranians are not fools and know that our best leaders are fearless and won't bend as they did under the Bush Administration.
We have known that nuclear capability in Iran was eventual and that geopolitical dynamics in the region are very fragile and volatile.
The best medicine for the Iranians is joint guidance and dialog designed to build trust going forward. The first days, years and decades of the biggest changes in life are the most difficult. A tough talking and terrifying dialog will only make Iranian resentment stronger and push their desired position farther away.
All nations that have nuclear capability have learned that it is easier to want something great, rather than to actually have it. The responsibility for ownership of a nuclear program requires immense control of supportive conditions to succeed. We often fail our own audits and some have been advertised - like when the Air Force bomber flew away with 6 nuclear bombs on a routine flight and didn't know it until the ground crew unloaded them and discovered the errors.
When Gorbachev hammered his gavel and fired himself as the Premier Leader, when Communism was voted out in 1989, we actually saw many guards in the USSR walking off their posts around nuclear weapons. It showed us how difficult it was to preserve the conditions needed to support nuclear safety. The Iranians are not fools. Most Iranians don't want to live like Russians or Americans always constrained by the responsibilities of serving a system that consumes national resources, and returns very little.
When an Iranian steps away from the TV set and clears up their mind from the corruption and prejudice of broadcast media, they behave the same as everyone else....and tell their leaders "You are crazy!"
Diplomatic relations are not built and maintained on TV networks, internet blogs and political action meetings. Instead, they are pursued at the US State Department.
Hillary Clinton is just letting hysterical simple minded viewers occupy their selves on this blogger side show while she does her job.
We need to trim BIGGOV off our back -- it is like a huge ugly mole or wart that is getting bigger everyday.
I bet you see atleast one push to donate to the gov spending machine - I have already seen several, Are you in? Donate/give to Obama ad today.
The hand out to take money in and what is being done? The debt ceiling is forever being raised, that seems to be the norm, give to gov and what do they do -- they tell us how to live and give our money away to foreign countries.
Enough!
We pay our enemies also,so tell me how that makes any sense? We pay the Palestians,Russians,Chinese,and other Arab countries.
==============================================================
Ok so you are good with it as long as we also fund corrupt politicians in all those other countries as well.
Pretty messed up stance you have there bub.
But this particular article is about Israel.
Israel just ordered a fleet of fighter jets from us on credit.
Watch it, watch it... We will forgive their loans. While we pay interest on the money we borrowed to give them the planes.
Right now, Israel is our only democratic ally in the middle east - a very volatile area of the world where radical Muslim extremist are taking over nations once friendly to the US. It would serve President Obama well to remember this.
Israel under Netanyahu has become a terrorist nation only to regret that its tactics of killing Iranian scientists are being used by Iran against its diplomat in foreign countries. I suspect, if Iran is attacked by Israel it will turn its vengeance against Jews every where and there is nothing the United States or any country could do to stop such carnage from happening. President Obama is right to be cautious following the Iraq debacle sparked by the silly suspicion that Iraq was in possesion of WMD. If history teaches us anything, it is that Israel and its Jewish allies in the United States who were at the fore front of selling the erroneous information to the world, that led to the war against iraq in search of an elusive WMD program must be ignored this time around. And if they are hell bent on going to war against Iran, Americans must demand that Israel foots the bill, period.
I know that this last statement will not fair well with those die hard Israelis supporters. Some will even call me "retard" for saying the truth. Unfortunately, such attack will only provide me with more amunitions to ask those critics the following questions: What don't they understand? They don't understand Israel had played a role if not key in the faulty intelligent that led to the Iraqi war. They don't understand that the key architects of the iraq war like paul wolfowitz were Jews with ties to Israel. They don't understand Israelis leaders like Netayanhu were singing similar tune with regard to Iraq having WMD that turned out to be hoax, Or, are they dumb and blind to understand the War in Iraq which was predicated on a similar circomstances, had cost Americans a trillion dollar and the dead of thousands of people including more than four thousand US service men and women.
The drum bit of war is enough to derail the fragile world economy, and any attempt to repeat the same mistake as in Iraq, which is already costing US citizens a great deal at the pump, just by the mere drum bit of war is just plain foolish.