Loin Girding 101

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Being sold as just another gaffe, Senator Biden’s comments two Sundays ago were not a mistake. The Senator meant every word.

“Mark my words. It will not be six months before the world tests Barack Obama,” stated Senator Joseph Biden, D-Del., in Seattle, Wash. “Watch, we’re going to have an international crisis, a generated crisis, to test the mettle of this guy . . . I guarantee you it’s going to happen.”

The running mate of possibly the next President of the United States “guarantees” that an international crisis is going to be “generated” in order to test the “mettle” of Senator Barack Obama, D-Ill., And, a possible generator of this test—Iran.

It is common knowledge that Obama has continuously said he would sit down and negotiate with Iran without preconditions. “Now, this is a statement about diplomacy, but I think it warrants considerable attention on several levels,” stated Ambassador John Bolton recently at the Heritage Foundation.

A Senior Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, Ambassador Bolton is a leading expert in foreign policy and international organizations. His extensive knowledge of Iran stems from his service as the 25th United States Ambassador to the United Nations where he had firsthand experience in the failing of diplomacy with Iran. “Negotiation with Iran is hardly a new idea, it’s quite the opposite. It’s an old idea that has failed,” Ambassador Bolton argued. “And it demonstrates, I think very graphically, a point that those who just say ‘why don’t we just negotiate with Iranians’ miss,” as Senator Obama does.

“We have had five years of negotiation between the EU Three [Britain, France, and Germany] and Iran,” stated Ambassador Bolton. “It has been understood from the get go from the Europeans, Iranians, and the State Department that in effect the Europeans had been speaking for us . . . And, when they [the three European Diplomats] went off to Teheran, the message they carried was you can have a different relationship not just with us [Europe] but with the United States if you will give up uranium enrichment.”

However, Iran has refused to give up uranium enrichment. Since beginning negotiations with Iran in 2003, no progress has been made. “While we have watched the Europeans pretend not to negotiate for five years, the Iranians have gotten five years closer to nuclear weapons,” continued Ambassador Bolton. “In the case of Iran, I don’t think there is any chance that Iran is going to be talked out of their nuclear weapons. There’s no price that we can pay that will induce Iran to give up its nuclear weapons. And, I think that was clear quite some time ago.”

When asked to address Senator Biden’s remark that a “generated crisis” will occur because of an Obama election, Ambassador Bolton’s response was simple. “I agree with Senator Biden in his concern,” stated Ambassador Bolton. “The risk of an untried President is not only that they wouldn’t respond adequately. I think there is also a risk of an excessive response because of a desire to prove, as Senator Biden said, ‘Senator Obama has steel in his spine.’”

Lance Nation is an intern at the American Journalism Center, a training program run by Accuracy in Media and Accuracy in Academia.