Daniel Pipes has a very scary op-ed in the Australian.
Obama’s attempts to “reset” his presidency will likely fail if he focuses on economics, where he is just one of many players. He needs a dramatic gesture to change the public perception of him as a lightweight, bumbling ideologue, preferably in an arena where the stakes are high, where he can take charge, and where he can trump expectations.
Such an opportunity does exist: Obama can give orders for the US military to destroy the Iranian nuclear weapon capacity.
There may well be good arguments for ‘doing something’ about Iranian nuclear capability – this is not ever a good argument. To be sure Obama needs to do something to save his presidency, but unlike Pipes I do think he should concentrate on the US economy. There are some very hard policy problems facing the US.
First their budget deficit needs to be reigned in and that primarily involves spending cuts. Second the US needs to have serious bankruptcy reform – at the moment they face the problem of having ‘too big to fail’ banks (and some corporations) because the bankruptcy procedures don’t work fast enough to clear away the debris of failed business models. This sort of thing is not nearly as spectacular as bombing foreigners but will add more value to the global economy in the long-run. If there is an argument for intervention in Iran let’s hear it.