President Obama the Procrastinator

We all know what happens when we procrastinate in school. You cram three weeks worth of studying all in one night. You get little sleep, you don't study nearly enough, and almost always you do poorly on said test. In the next year or so, we are about to find out what happens when you procrastinate in the world of geopolitics. President Obama made this troubling statement coming out of his meeting with the Prime Minister, Bibi Netanyahu.

Speaking to reporters after meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Obama offered assurances that he did not intend for talks with Iran to become “an excuse for inaction,” a major concern of Israeli officials worried that Tehran will string out talks while making progress toward acquiring a nuclear weapon.

But he also made clear that he was prepared to wait months for Iran to respond to the U.S. offer of better ties in return for halting its nuclear activities. He emphasized that the year-end timetable would be for assessing whether the diplomatic effort was “moving in the right direction,” not a deadline for reaching a final agreement with Iran on halting its nuclear activities.

“By the end of the year I think we should have some sense as to whether or not the talks are having some benefit,” Obama said

Now, of course, no one knows for sure just how long it will be before Iran has actually created a nuclear bomb. Most people don't believe it will be before the end of the year, but of course, no one can know for sure. It isn't very reassuring to any peace loving person that the president is willing to give the Iranians until the end of the year just to make up their minds about dialogue.

This is as asinine as it is naive. It doesn't take a genius to see just how easily this situation will be manipulated by the Iranians. They will likely wait until the end of the year. Then, they will decide to have some talks. They will schedule talks for March or so. They will have talks until the end of 2010. Then, they will break off talks and announce in early 2011 that they have a nuclear bomb.

The president is absolutely determined to create dialogue with Iran. He is so determined in fact that he is willing to set aside even the most basic of problems. Because the Iranians understand just how badly he wants to dialogue, this gives them an opening to dance with him for up to two years over dialogue. Two years is likely enough time to create the nuclear bomb. As such, president Obama is willing to risk giving the Iranians enough time to change the geopolitical game entirely just to see through a misguided and naive policy that has no hope of working anyway. Such is the result of electing a first term Senator who ran for President his entire term in the middle of two wars.