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Politics Not Driving the Iran Debate

(New York Times) Aaron David Miller - One of the most dangerous myths these days is that President Obama's Iran policy has been taken hostage by election year pandering to Israel and the pro-Israel community in America. At the AIPAC policy conference the president's rhetoric toughened, but his speech was smart politics and also smart policy. He has a stake in signaling the Iranians that this issue is at the top of his agenda and that they shouldn't be relaxed about military action; reassuring the Israelis that he takes their concerns seriously without giving into an irrepressible slide toward war; and communicating to the Russians and Chinese that he plans to raise the pressure on Iran while leaving open the possibility of diplomacy, however slim that may be. The reality is that if this were 2011, and not an election year, the president's policy would be very much the same: buy time to determine if nonmilitary pressure against Iran can work (oil sanctions will kick in this summer) and reassure Israel of his seriousness but don't give ironclad commitments (yet) that America will take care of the Iranian nuclear problem if Israel will stay its hand. This is hardly pandering. What will emerge is enough of a consensus to ratchet up pressure and avoid war for now. The writer is a public policy scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.
2012-03-09 00:00:00
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