Obama, tell Israel not to bomb Iran
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu convenes the weekly cabinet meeting in Jerusalem, Sunday, Feb. 26, 2012. Netanyahu says Iran's nuclear program will take center stage in his upcoming talks with North American leaders. (AP Photo/Jim Hollander, Pool) Credit: AP Photo/Jim Hollander
President Barack Obama should urge Israel not to strike Iran's nuclear facilities precipitously when he sits down with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Monday at the White House. As things stand right now, the tough economic sanctions in place should be given a chance to work. Military violence should always be the last resort.
It could be a difficult conversation. Both nations are determined to make sure Iran doesn't build a nuclear weapon. But the U.S. intelligence community concluded recently that there is no hard evidence that Iran has decided to actually build a nuclear bomb, although it is working to develop the capability to do so quickly if, and when, it chooses. That's been the consensus of the nation's 16 intelligence agencies since 2007, when they said Iran had halted its nuclear weapons program in 2003.
But it's Israel that Tehran's bellicose rhetoric has put in the nuclear cross-hairs. So Netanyahu is intent on preventing Iran from gaining that capability.
Economic sanctions are starting to bite in Iran, but Netanyahu is expected to press Obama for assurances that if they fail, the United States will do whatever it takes to prevent a nuclear Iran. It's important that the two men reach a clear understanding about where that line lies. But a preventive war with Iran would do more harm than good for the United States.
One lesson of our long slog in Iraq is that rash military action in Iran could mire the United States in a war the nation doesn't want and will find difficult to end. An attack would disrupt an already tumultuous region. It could interrupt Iran's oil production, send gas prices soaring even higher and cripple the economic recovery. And it would prompt Iranians to rally behind their radical, intractable leaders.
Managing the Iranian problem has been complicated by the Republican presidential hopefuls' overheated rhetoric, which has racheted up pressure on Obama to look tough. But tough economic pressure that forces Iran to negotiate a peaceful nuclear future without the bomb would be the best result of the drum beat for war.
