How would Obama prevent a nuclear Iran?

[BritishDemocrat]

He has said a nuclear Iran would not be an option under his Presidency. Would he really use force if diplomacy fails?

[tekisui]

1. When it comes to a country seeking nuclear development,

diplomacy is the only option. Nuclear weapons prevent military force being an option.

[sohndrsmith]

3. Well said. Thank you. n/t

[BritishDemocrat]

9. Yeah

Well I thought that, but his simple statements like 'A nuclear Iran will not be tolerated under my Presidency', suggests that he either has extreme faith that diplomacy will work, or that he is prepared to use the military if it fails.

[JVS]

11. Replace "seeking" with "having" and you're correct.

When a country is seeking the weapons but doesn't have them it is often viewed as some kind of "last call" on possible invasion of the country.

[Lint Head]

2. With all of the chickenhawk BS from republicans the only President

to ever use nuclear weapons was a Democrat. The most decorated hero of WWII was a Democrat, Audie Murphy.
:dem:

[Soylent Brice]

7. and the most decorated officer from WWI was Smedley Butler

a mother fucking hero.

[Warren Stupidity]

4. We can't actually stop Iran from building a weapon.

As usual, the public has been lied to over this for years now, and politicians have backed themselves into the corner labeled 'stupid'. Eventually Iran will build its weapons and join the nuclear club. Whoever happens to be president at the time will have to eat a significant amount of crow, while deploying a massive spin effort to minimize the domestic political damage.

[eridani]

5. Why would we want to?

The cat is out of the bag, and Iran is surrounded by the nuclear powers of Israel, China, Russia, India and Pakistan. If we want to do something about proliferation, let's lead by example. Quit egging on and helping the nuke programs of Pakistan and India, for starters.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

6. Ummm.......maybe not threatening to bomb and/or invade them?

:shrug:

It seems to me that the best way to ensure that Iran goes nuclear is to continue the Bush policy of talking about seeking regime change, engaging in covert activities to undermine their government, and/or mentioning World War III when talking about them. I don't think Obama and Clinton are going to continue any of these activities, particularly since they won't have PNAC guiding their foreign policy decisions.

As Michael Moore suggested in his most recent book ("Mike's Election Guide 2008"), I believe that we should assume the default position that Iran does NOT have any WMD until or unless somebody shows us the actual bomb and even then I myself am probably not going to worry about it unless Iran actually starts THREATENING another country (i.e. Israel). I'm not talking about some broad anti-Israel remarks (which everybody in the arab world makes on a regular basis) but I mean literally amassing troops and/or threatening to attack/invade another country (with or without WMDs). I don't honestly believe that Iran is suicidal enough, however, to actually attack us or Israel unless we back them into a corner and/or attack them first and, after 8 years of Bushco and its unfettered support for Israel I imagine that they probably feel pretty threatened. Hopefully, however, Obama and Clinton can help make them feel safe enough so they won't feel like they HAVE to resort to developing WMDs and maybe even rebuild some of the post-9/11 good will between the US and Iran that apparently existed, at least before Bushco went and included them as part of his so-called "Axis-of-Evil".

That being said, I think that Obama should make non-proliferation of WMD his administration's top priority including stopping any further development of our own WMD arsenal and offering positive incentives (and not just "we'll let you live" incentives either) for countries including Iran NOT to develop WMD in the first place and/or reduce and eventually eliminate any WMD arsenal already in existence.

[gravity]

8. If diplomacy failed, Obama will probably attack the nuclear installations

with surgical strikes.

[Phoonzang]

10. Well if diplomacy fails the only way to stop them from obtaining nuclear weapons

would be to blow up their nuclear sites. So....yes.

[xchrom]

12. he can't.

not if they are resolute in obtaining them.

even with force -- i have my doubts.

i think it is a fait accompli.

[asteroid2003QQ47]

13. How would Obama prevent a nuclear Iran?

What the fuck would give Obama or anyone else in this Nation With No History
(war mongering aside) the moral right to prevent a nuclear Iran?
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Shut up, you American. You Americans, all you do is talk, and talk, and say "let me tell you something" and "I just wanna say." Well, you're dead now, so shut up.
--Grim Reaper (Monty Python)