Which Way You Goin, Barry?

Mustang has a new post up regarding Mr. Foreign Affairs Expert:

Biden to Israel: "Screw You!"

He's talking about this Newsmax article, which related the following:

Reportedly Biden told the officials he opposed "opening a additional military and diplomatic front" against Iran.

"Israel will have to reconcile itself with the nuclearization of Iran," Army Radio quoted Biden as telling the Israelis.

Unfortunately Newsmax and some of the Israeli press don't have most stellar of reputations, and this comment was taken from a closed-door meeting. But let's assume Joe was quoted accurately, perhaps engaging in a bit of spin to lower expectations of an Obama administration. For contrast, here's a section of Bill O'Reilly's Thursday interview with Obama, where Iran gets discussed around the 2:00 mark:



"Here's where you and I agree. It is unacceptable for Iran to possess a nuclear weapon. It would be a game changer.."

So Obama says the military option isn't off the table, and says their acquiring nukes would be unacceptable, and has said he would do everything he could to prevent such a thing. But is failure an option? Others seem more determined.

So the question seems to be (assuming Biden's closed door comments to be true) whether he's really serious about preventing a nuclear Iran or whether this is just spin rhetoric designed to win votes from whomever he's speaking to at the moment. On the flip side, does anyone doubt McCain's bottom line? Yet he's a warmonger for it.

As to Obama not wanting to "tip his hand" to any military strategy on Iran, that's certainly prudent but it seems in conflict to his previous views on nuclear Pakistan, something his challengers had fun with during this back and forth in a primary debate.