Obama: U.S. has 'absolutely not' given OK for Israeli strike on Iran

[struggle4progress]

Source: Los Angeles Times

The president clarifies a statement by Vice President Joe Biden suggesting that the U.S. would stand aside if Israel wanted to launch an attack.
By Paul Richter
2:04 PM PDT, July 7, 2009

Reporting from Washington -- President Obama, issuing an unusual clarification of his vice president's words, said today that his administration has "absolutely not" given its blessing for an Israeli attack on Iran.

Obama said that though Israel has the right

Vice President Joe Biden created a stir Sunday by suggesting that the United States would stand aside if the Israelis wanted to attack.

"Israel can determine for itself -- it's a sovereign nation -- what's in their interest and what they decide to do relative to Iran and anyone else," Biden said on ABC's "This Week" ...

Read more: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-obama-iran8-2009jul08,0,1363782.story

[timeforpeace]

1. Other than that, the Vice President was spot on.

[ohio2007]

20. Joe is only a heartbeat away from POTUS

[aquart]

2. No kidding.

[AntiFascist]

3. What would Obama do if Israel did strike...

write a harshly worded letter?

[Wizard777]

8. If Israel unilaterally destroys all the good work Obama has been doing.

Unilaterally squanders all the good will he has earned through diplomatic expense in these tough financial times. I think it would be very safe to say there would be hell to pay. It would not surprise me one bit if Obama turned his back on the smart ass lil brother while he actually got that royal butt kicking he's been working so hard on earning. He could even go as far as saying Israel your on your own. Don't come crying to us any more. We wash our hands of you. Some parting friendly advice. If you nuke Iran or any of the other countries that come rushing in as we exit. If Pakistan doesn't nuke you. Russia will.

[cali]

14. what do you think he should do?

He doesn't control the purse. There's little he can do.

[AntiFascist]

15. Wizard777's response was very convincing...

hopefully he has done just the right thing.

[Grinchie]

16. I'm sure that he'd watch the carnage from afar for a while

Wait for the media to inflame the American public to demand U.S. participation, and then unleash the American Dogs of war just like Bush wood.

I believe the script has been in production for some years now.

[ecstatic]

4. Not good not good

Are Biden's strengths being canceled out by his weaknesses?

[Grinchie]

19. Biden's Strengths? What kind of Kool Aid have you been drinking?

Biden got his ass kicked by Sarah Palin in case you don't have a memory for the Vice Presidential debates.

Biden is a bumbling, semi functional nit wit that needs supervision, and this has been clear since 2001.

He is another Dan Quayle or Ford....

Now that Obama has proven that he is nothing more than a Corporate mouthpiece, the thought of Joe Biden scares the hell out of me.

[defendandprotect]

5. Other than the encouragment and the wink and nod by Biden . . . ????

[Mari333]

6. we have no room to talk anyway while we occupy 2 sovereign nations

and continue to kill their citizens...

[Wizard777]

7. Afghanistan is a legal war. We were attacked by agents of the high contracting party.

So all I have for Afghanistan is :nopity: and the same with Pakistan. If they want us gone. They can simply give us Bin Laden and Al Qaida. At that point we really have no legal reason to stay.

[Mari333]

17. afghanistan is an occupation period

and its about oil pipelines, not bin laden.
always always follow the money.
dont believe the faux news hype.

[Chulanowa]

27. Uh zuh suh wuh?

No, we issued an ultimatum to Afghanistan's government to give us Bin Laden. Directly. Now. They offered him through an intermediary. No, now, directly to us. And then we started bombing the place back to... Whatever came before the stone age. Afghanistan had nothing to do with 9/11. It just happens to be where Bin Laden was at the time - Nevermind there wasn't a single Afghan in the planes. of course, let's not forget that terrorism is not something that should get a military response.

But I suppose some people just like the sight of dead Muslims. Seems to be as common on DU as it is on any right-wing forum.

[Wizard777]

28. On 9/11 Al Qaida was agents of the Taliban. Plain and simple.

Nevermind coulda woulda shoulda oughta. With 3,066 dead we're going with what is. Yes terroists can be addressed with the military. Their military designation is mercenary. That makes them a viable military target. As far as oil goes. It's gonna be damn near everywhere you go in the middle east. That's like saying a fist fight at the dump is a fight for trash. It's just everywhere. Personally I support Justice for the 3,066 that died on 9/11.

[14thColony]

31. You're asserting that AQ was acting as an agent of the Taliban on 9/11?

Would you care to expand on that a bit? It appears you're privy to information no one else on Earth has, since no one else with expertise on the subject believes this.

Oil is not "everywhere you go in the Middle East" any more than burkhas are. Off the top of my head Israel, Lebanon, Egypt, Tunisia, Morocco, Yemen, Oman, Jordan, and Syria either have no oil reserves or so little as to be irrelevant. That's a huge chunk of the Middle East right there.

And by the way, Afghanistan isn't part of the Middle East and terrorists do not have a "military designation" of mercenary.

But beyond that, your post was pretty accurate!

[Wizard777]

32. Al Qaida operating in Afghanistan in official capacities on behalf of the Taliban has never been -

in dispute. That makes them agents of. Al Qaida conforms to two military designations. They are Mercenary (soldier for hire) and Spies. On the battle fields in Afghanistan. They are Mercenaries. But the 9/11 conspirators were acting as Spies on a Espionage (gathering intelligence) and Sabotage (attacks upon strategic positions and systems) mission. There training by our CIA is quite evident. They basically fight like spies and are acquiring a military front.

[14thColony]

33. Nice chatting with you then!

Nothing more I can say really.

[Vidar]

9. Glad to hear it. Maybe he & Biden need to talk more.

[SpartanDem]

10. Biden never said it was OK to attack Iran

he said the US couldn't tell Israel how to defend itself

[Rosa Luxemburg]

11. as usual the media is distorting

[SuperTrouper]

13. It is the media...their honeymoon with Obama is over.

I just cannotv stand the whorish MSM :mad:

[IndianaGreen]

24. Biden did give the rightwing government in Israel the green light to attack Iran

You can't spin Biden out of the web he spinned himself.

[jeanmarc]

29. Agreed.

Had a Republican VP given the same statement, there would be outrage here.

Biden's words were at the very least clumsy. But I did read them as 'you can do what you want, Israel, have a field day'.

[ro1942]

12. no surprise

coming from joe biden.

[sutz12]

18. I think they set this up....

I read Biden's words as, "Sure they can attack if they want, but they'll be on their own."

:evilgrin:

[Flaneur]

21. Thank you, Mr. President.

Mr. Vice-President? Not so much.

[wroberts189]

22. knr

[anonymous171]

23. Even Bush wouldn't do that, if I recall correctly.

Probably one of the only good things he ever did during his presidency.

[Douglas Carpenter]

25. I figured as much. But I am relieved that the President has clarified the position

The Biden story was in big, bold headlines in every newspaper in the Middle East

[HarvardMed]

26. not good enough

If he still said that they have the right to attack. What right? Just out of the blue? No country should attack another country period.

[pinniped]

30. Shit, the president better do something about this. Just a few weeks ago....

the protesting Iranian people were his best friends. He wouldn't want to see them obliterated.

Oh well, we all knew either the attack Iran memo would resurface.

[ohio2007]

34. US military frees five Iranian diplomats in Iraq: IRNA ( give appeasment a chance )

All we are saying
is give appeasement a chance

US military frees five Iranian diplomats in Iraq: IRNA
TEHRAN: Five Iranian diplomats held by the US military in Iraq since January 2007 were freed on Thursday, the official IRNA news agency said, quoting Tehran’s ambassador to Baghdad, AFP reported.

‘The five Iranian diplomats abducted in Iraq were handed over by the occupying US forces to the Iraqi prime minister Nuri al-Maliki,’ the ambassador Hassan Kazemi Qomi said.

He said the five men would be handed over to the Iranian embassy in Baghdad after meeting Maliki.

Their detention has long been a source of additional friction in the hostile relations between Iran and its archfoe the United States.

‘The five Iranians were released and they are in the hands of the Iraqi government. We should receive them in the next hours,’ a source at the Iranian embassy in Baghdad said.

The US embassy in the Iraqi capital had no immediate comment.

The US military, which accuses Iran of funding and equipping Shia militias in Iraq, had arrested the five at an office in the Kurdish city of Arbil in northern Iraq on January 11, 2007.

It accused them of being agents for Tehran, arming militias and inciting anti-US attacks in Iraq.

The arrests triggered a diplomatic row, with Tehran accusing US forces in Iraq of violating international diplomatic regulations, but Washington and the US military in Iraq maintained they had no diplomatic status.


snip
The five Iranian men were identified by Iran’s state broadcaster as Mohsen Bagheri, Mahmoud Farhadi, Majid Ghaemi, Majid Dagheri and Abbas Jami.

Soon after taking office in January, US President Barack Obama called for dialogue with Iran after three decades of severed ties.

But relations took a turn for the worse again after the Iranian authorities cracked down on massive public protests over the disputed re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in June.

http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/news/world/14-us-military-frees-five-iranian-diplomats-in-iraq-irna-zj-07

Seems the Iranian thugs are no longer firing into the crowds but rather, over their heads and hitting them with tear gas

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=f47_1247184624