The Meaningless Deadline

In case anyone forgot,  yesterday marked the Obama adminstration's deadline for Iran to reach an agreement on giving up its nuclear weapons ambitions. The mullahs and Ahmadinejad are quaking with fear, wondering what Obama will do. Well, not exactly. As Ralph Peters put it in an article that nails the utter incompetence of the Obama administration's Iran policy, here's what the Iranian leadership has been up to instead.

[They] took a break from killing protesters in the streets to attempt to import more than 1,300 tons of make-a-nuke uranium ore from Kazakhstan. 

They've also increased their nuke-cooker centrifuge count, tested new long-range missiles and lied like Persian rugs about hidden nuke sites.

That pretty much covers it. They've basically spit in the face of Obama's so-called "engagement" policy, better known as the empty talk & wishful thinking program. Peters details why any sanctions will be ineffective, and gives a worst-case scenario of what might happen. But he also makes some recommendations about what the U.S. should be doing.

What should this inept administration do? Provide clandestine, covert and overt support to Iran's freedom crusaders. And funnel money and arms to Baluchi, Kurdish, Azeri and Arab separatists willing to take on the Revolutionary Guard jihadis.

I would agree with all of that except the "overt" part. And I would add that we should be doing everything possible to sabotage Iranian nuclear facilities, disrupt their supply chains, and kill or kidnap key personnel. Iran has waged a covert war against the U.S. in Iraq, and the U.S. should be returning the favor.

I retain a small hope that despite the appearance of weakness and incompetence, the Obama administration is secretly taking some effective actions against Iran. Let's hope so, because the policies we can see are worse than useless.