Iran: What my President said.

The hard-line war talk of the GOP primary hopefuls, for example--is sick and wrong. They aren't privy to the same information the President is, but beyond that, they are playing up to an audience they are creating and enhancing--leadership doesn't mean being willing to be the biggest bully on the block, it means sometimes relating realities to people, appreciating complexity, and even not doing anything at all if all the choices are bad.

And that is what we have with Iran and nukes. The reality of nuclear weapons is not just that the nuke is a consummate offensive weapon, but also that is a great defensive weapon, because if you have one, the nation dealing with you must be more circumspect about what you want and what you are willing to destroy to get what you want. For a nation long associated with the sponsorship of terror, possession of the bomb and the implications regarding how it will be used aren't shit compared with the implications about how it won't be used, if everyone stays cool.

After all, both of their main opponents wax them utterly in the "Having Nukes" category. They know they would use their one or two--and be annihilated. How is the dynamic different from "Mutually assured destruction"--except they can't ensure anyone is so much destroyed but themselves if a nuclear device were ever used by them?

This makes no sense.  I find the cavalier talk of war with Iran troubling and not deeply considered, not unlike the run-up to the Iraq War.

I wold be happy if Obama's canny example were respected.