[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59ILsqSKP88[/youtube].

My preference is for peace and diplomacy, and this is one of the reasons why I’ve sent a message to Congress that now is not the time for us to impose new sanctions; now is the time for us to allow the diplomats and technical experts to do their work. We will be able to monitor and verify whether or not the interim agreement is being followed through on, and if it is not, we’ll be in a strong position to respond. But what we want to do is give diplomacy a chance and give peace a chance

President Obama made the above remarks yesterday while taking questions after a meeting with President Mariano Rajoy of Spain. The President was talking about security, and brought up the recent, and recently under fire, deal with Iran regarding their nuclear ambitions. Congress wants him to take a harder line on sanctions. The President and Secretary Kerry continue to resist. And now we have a summary of the philosophy Obama has regarding Iran’s nuclear program. Give peace a chance.

This is a clueless point of view in many ways. In the first place, it assumes that taking a hard line on Iranian nukes would mean war. Second, it assumes that Iran having nuclear weapons is a concern secondary to having a war with Iran. And third, as American Thinker points out, it assumes that “the problems with Iran are due to United States intransigence. If only we weren’t so imperialistic, so rich, so infidel, there wouldn’t be a problem.” And of course, it is not merely the phrase, it is the language in which the phrase is couched, both in this particular instance and in the past weeks as the deal with Iran has been in the news. Let the experts do their work, he says. Experts make everything better. Magical thinking.

When President Obama says “give peace a chance”, in light of his well-established foreign policy timidity and on top of that, the recent revelations about his partisan and selfish thinking on Iraq and Afghanistan as revealed by Robert Gates, one has to wonder. Is his priority in dealing with Iran protecting American lives and interests? Or is it just protecting his political legacy. For a child of the 60s peace movement, being the President who let Iran get nukes would be far less of a black mark than being a President who went to war.