We already know that you can't believe anything the White House says, and Israel knows it even better than we do. So when it comes out that the Obama Administration is secretly trying to establish ties with Iran while publicly insisting it is doing no such thing, I'm sure "Chickens***" Benjamin Netanyahu merely rolls his eyes at the realization that the Israelis are characteristically out of the loop.
The potential implications here are troubling all around, both in terms of why it's happening in the first place and in terms of what it could cost us if the Iranians decide to play ball. Obama demonstrates here that he's in a weak position:
The U.S. and Iran are each engaged in military efforts to degrade the Islamic State group, essentially putting the longtime foes on the same side in the campaign against the extremists. However, the Obama administration has repeatedly insisted that it is not coordinating and will not coordinate its military actions with Iran, though officials from both countries have discussed the matter more broadly.
Obama's letter to Iran's powerful religious leader comes against the backdrop of the looming Nov. 24 deadline in nuclear negotiations between the U.S. and Iran, as well as five other world powers. While Obama has previously sent letters to Khamenei, any communication between the two men has been extremely rare.
The Wall Street Journal, which first reported that Obama had sent the letter, said it described a shared interest between the U.S. and Iran in fighting the IS and stressed that any cooperation on that would be largely contingent on Iran agreeing to the nuclear deal. However, while not confirming or denying the existence of the letter, administration officials said there were still no plans to cooperate or coordinate with Iran against the militants.
"The United States will not cooperate militarily with Iran in that effort," White House spokesman Josh Earnest said. "We won't share intelligence with them."
Why are we reaching out to Iran? Because we need all the help we can get. When Obama pulled U.S. troops out of Iraq in 2011 - refusing to even negotiate a basic status of forces agreement like the ones we have with more than 100 other countries, he put us in an untenable strategic position and set the stage for ISIS to overrun much of the country. With a decent-sized U.S. troop presence, we could have kept them from entering the country in the first place.
Now that they're there, we apparently don't have the capacity to kick them out on our own, especially given Obama's politically driven refusal to let U.S. troops engage in ground combat. (That paid huge political dividends on Tuesday, yes?)
So we need help, and we're apparently not fussy about where we get it. Now what do you suppose Iran's price might be? If you're paying attention, you know perfectly well. Iran's top priority is its nuclear program, and it wants the ability to develop weapons-grade nukes without getting grief from the U.S. or the international community. Obama has never been all that committed to stopping Iran's nuclear program in the first place, and he certainly doesn't care about the Israelis' concerns on that score.
So when Obama reaches out to Ali Khamenei seeking assistance in fighting ISIS, what do you suppose he's offering? It can only be one thing, which is the only thing Iran wants: You help us, we back off on the nukes.
Would Obama let himself get rolled that easily by an Islamic terrorist state?
I know. Silly question.
