Obama and Iran

http://townhall.com/political-cartoons/2012/01/03/95120

Obama's Iraq withdrawal a 'snowball' of disaster in the region   "Obama knew Iraq wasn’t ready for the security handoff, but his hapless diplomacy failed to win the necessary immunity deal needed to protect any stay-behind troops.  So he ordered the troops out knowing that Iraq ’s collapse could be a disaster for American regional interests and put Iran in a dominant position, at the expense of 4,500 American lives lost and nearly $1 trillion."


How Serious Are Iran's Threats? "Simultaneous with an Iranian naval exercise in and around the Strait of Hormuz, there has beenconsiderable bluster from the Iranian side telling the United States not to send any more warships into that area. What's going on? Is there real tension in the area or is this routine polemics?"

Fareed Zakaria: Iran’s growing state of desperation  "But a senior commander of the Revolutionary Guards — Iran’s crucial power source — quickly backtracked, explaining that Tehran had no intention of blocking the straits. It would be madness to do so because Iran would suffer more than any country. Blocking the straits would result in a total shutdown of Iran’s exports and imports; with 60 percent of Iran’s economy coming from oil exports, it would bring the government to a standstill."

Saudis, Gulf states on war alert for early US-Iran clash "America's failure to rise to Iran's challenge will confirm its rulers in the conviction that the US is a paper tiger and encourage them to press their advantage for new gains.
The assessment of British military experts Thursday, Jan. 5, was that the question now is: Who will blink first? Will the US follow through on the Pentagon's assertion that the deployment of US military assets in the Persian Gulf will continue as it has for decades? Or will Iran act on its warnings and block those waters to the entry of American warships?
President Barack Obama can't afford to cave in to Iran, especially while campaigning for reelection in Nov. 2012; Tehran, for its part, has made too many threats to easily back down."