on the brink of war with Iran

Obama gave it a good try early on in his presidency to try and open up some meaningful dialogue with the Iranians. Only problem is that the Iranian leadership is too stubborn to want to listen to anything we have to say. And now that Iran has developed their nuclear technology and are likely to be closer to building nuclear weapons than ever, its hard to let diplomacy kick in this far along. At least with the Russians we had embassies each other's countries and we each agreed to talk it out first before things got too crazy in the Cold War. We don't even have that much rapport with Iran. And that could be what leads us to war with them. If neither side can talk to each other, its not likely war will be averted.

 

Oh come on.

Obama like bush has continued the same form of 'diplomacy' with iran. Which unfourantly with america means, threats and no form of patiente agreement.

It is all based on the usa view of iran ending their nuclear ambition without any foresight or any attempt to build bridges. It is no surprise why the iranian goverment simply ignore it. It isnt anything worth listening to.

If the usa does want to 'help' the view is simple. To step away. Give iran breathing room. The current aggression wont inspire them to withdraw from nuclear buildup, quite the reverse.

Although it is clear the usa goverment has other agendas with iran. And the iranians are not stupid to believe that america one of the largest nuke nations on earth cares about nuclear disarming.

 

In the first year of his presidency Obama did more to try and start some real dialogue with Iran than Bush did for 8 years in office. Its kind of hard to try and open up relations again when you have an elephant in the room such as nuclear weapons. I give Obama credit for trying though. He probably should have followed up on his words with some concessions or given the Iranians some more incentive for them to be willing to talk.

 

What are you giving obama credit for? It seems style over substance.

Yes, we all heard the speechs. The months of rhetric and hype to the "yes we can" political soundbites lovingly created by teams of spin doctors. The diplomatic challenge he attempted with iran, wasnt going to be easy. Years of hard work and slow bridge building. And yet as we all witnessed, now reviewing the current mess with usa failed relations. The obama goverment quickly gave up on any form of slow change to instead repeat the bush mantra of threatening behaver. Ie, sanctions and the on the table statements of war and invasion.

And as you pointed out, the obsession of the usa goverment to constantly repeat the same tired hysterical cry for iran to end thier nuclear project. Not a healthy dialogue and that has continued the entire obama presidency. The same repeated statements, to which the iran goverment must be sick of hearing.

It does seem obama either didnt care about repairing bad history with iran or he is completly lost trying to 'appear' a war president.

 

There may also be a lot more going on behind closed doors than the general public is aware of. But yes Obama's words weren't enough to try and bring a peaceful resolution to what is likely to be an inevitable conflict. It is likely that Obama is siding with his generals and foreign policy experts for political reasons. Appearing too soft during an election year would severely hurt his chances in November. But I think we also have to recognize that the Iranians want this nuclear technology regardless of what we do or say. Which is why I believe a conflict of some sort is going to happen.

 

Also the obama goverment are pushing iran towards nuclear with the constant threats. I don't see how any national goverment woulden't pursue a defence policy that included nuclear while under the pressure of possible invasion.

Which is a shame, i did once believe obama was more than he has turned into.

 

I don't think Iran needed any encouragement from the US to build nuclear technology. They were probably going to do it anyway. In addition to pissing us off, I think they also want to establish greater influence in the region and overpower their neighbors like Saudi Arabia. Nuclear weapons allow them to get the leg up on Israel, Saudi Arabia, and whoever else.

But I don't think we actually want to invade Iran. After 10 years of fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan our military is already pretty exhausted. And I think our government understands at this point that we can't force democracy on anyone. In Iraq it looks like the country could dissolve back into civil war. Afghanistan hasn't changed much since we first invaded it. My guess is that if conflict happens, we will likely let someone else do the heavy lifting.

 

Sure, usa is still lost in the empire mentality without any maturity to go beyond military threats and power.

And while involved with this, america for no apprent reason but to threaten and bully a state in the middle east. Sad really, what the usa has turned into. Nothing constructive, just constant war with continued hyped so called enemies.

I have nothing against iran or believe the nonsense propoganda. Same was said towards iraq and the same be said by america against another nation after iran, if the usa cant break this cycle.

 

Yes Americans love war and we are proud of our accomplishments that have come with war. We are proud of our military and proud of all those who serve. The American people probably put more trust in the military than we do our government. It does not mean however that we want war or that we believe war is good. We just haven't been unfortunate enough to experience enough death and destruction for us to be more pacifist like many of our European allies. Our natural borders have blessed us without the majority of our society having the firsthand knowledge of the harsh realities war.