Sunday, September 27, 2009

Secret Iranian Facility: Another Kabuki Dance

Like I said Friday, I, among others who carefully scour the Internet for news, have known about this not-hardly-secret secret Iranian underground nuclear facility when an Iranian opposition group notified the world of that fact in a 2007 press conference. Click to see story: Iranian Opposition Group Claims Iran Building Secret Underground Nuclear Facility.

However, in the last two days, Barack Obama has been acting like an overly talkative detective who just cracked the crime of the century. But, knowing that this facility had already existed and, now, acting like it was a completely new revelation is truly what Tom Brokaw once called the kabuki dance of politics. At the time, Brokaw was talking about the falseness of the Republican and Democratic National Convention process in nominating a presidential candidate when, in fact, the outcome was already known by virtue of the preceding state primaries. But, in the same vein, that falseness is shared in what Obama is now saying about Iran's underground nuke facility.

Personally, I think Obama is using this "kabuki" to run up his personal poll numbers. Its intention is to make him look like he's finally doing something tough on the Iranian issue after looking so weak in canceling the Eastern European missile shield.

I'm quite sure that this current tough talk on Iran is a very calculated tactic by Team Obama. However, don't be fooled by all the tough talk now. The proof will be in what happens after this. We will have to see if all this talk results in sanctions or other efforts to thwart Iran's race to nuclear success.

Either unwittingly or intentionally, Obama's revelation of this underground site may actually have legitimized Israel's need to attack and take out this and the other Iranian facility. Now, from the mouth of our President, the world has been given the evidence needed for it to accept an Israeli attack. Is this what Obama wanted? Anyway you shake it, this now-public certification of that facility just puts more pressure on Israel to act "immediately" and take matters into their own hands. In a way, it gives the U.S. the cred to act on Israel's behalf and take out that facility. However, don't bank on this President taking any such action.

I think that Friday's declaration has made things a lot more complicated and more pressure packed. I really don't know where this is all going to go. I would hope we are not now on the precipice of a Middle East war; should Israel attack Iran.

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