How Far Is Obama Willing To Go To Avoid The Stigma Of Being Another Carter

Walter Russell Mead writes that the chance that Obama will go ahead and attack Iran in order to stop it from acquiring nuclear capabilities is greater than people imagine:

In particular a nuclear Iran will kill the two dreams at the heart of President Obama’s foreign policy and indeed of his view of the world: the dream that the genie of nuclear weapons can be forced back into the bottle and the dream that the nations of the world can build a post-Westphalian international order in which the world’s governments are bound by deepening networks of laws.

Read the whole thing.

Meanwhile, Michael Totten agrees:

Surely, Obama knows he is often compared to former President Jimmy Carter by his domestic opponents — and not in a good way. Carter’s presidency was cut short for a number of reasons, the most memorable being his inability to rescue or negotiate the release of 52 hostages seized from the American Embassy in Tehran by Ayatollah Khomeini’s radical Islamists during Iran’s post-revolutionary struggle for power. That very same regime now threatens Obama’s presidency and place in history, too. As much as he fears and loathes the thought of going to war with Iran, he can’t relish the possibility of becoming Jimmy Carter Redux and losing everything.

Maybe. Then again, how far will Obama go before he actually gives up on the virtues of diplomacy.
Besides, Obama has his hands full with Iraq and especially Afghanistan. If he does not have full backing for those 2 wars, how can he go ahead with a third?

Even assuming that Obama has a world vision and has the capabilities to pursue it, as Mead apparently does, can you really imagine Obama taking such a step?

Isn't it more likely that at best he would give Israel the OK to go ahead?

Technorati Tag: Israel and Obama and Iran.