Iran, in Today's News 09.17.09

Iran. The preparations for a United States confrontation with Iran are growing more serious. The US is now trying to clear some of the obstacles to the US-Israel plan to bring Iran to its knees. One of the principle obstacles is Russia's support to Iran.

On September 16 the Wall Street Journal ran a story covered by all the media. The headline: "Medvedev Blasts Russian System." If one reads the article one learns that Medvedev did no such thing. His criticisms of Russian corruption, etc., were the same as Putin's, with whom Medvedev says he talks regularly. The article implies a break between Putin and Medvedev which exists only in the imagination of the author.

What's going on here? Believe it or not, but the cryptocracy's employees actually think that they can drive a wedge between Medvedev and Putin, by indicating to Medvedev that if he plays ball they will be helpful to him. Somehow the foreign policy experts think they have a better chance of neutralizing Russia on the Iran issue with Medvedev. Fat chance.

Then today, the White House leaked that the "US to Shelve Nuclear-Missile Shield" (page one headline in the Wall Street Journal). The US is now abandoning the Bush Administration plans to build a missile-defense system in Poland and the Czech Republic. The idea is to please Russia, but the 'allies' will be infuriated. That the US is willing to make such a dramatic move indicates how seriously the US wants the confrontation with Iran and wants it with no opposition from Russia.

The message to Medvedev is pretty clear: the US is willing to make big efforts to show that Russia is better off under him than Putin. The US may have some intelligence to show that these maneuvers may actually work, but success is highly doubtful. The US actions seem to be a fairly desperate attempt to get Russia out of the way.

Israel keeps pushing the US to end Iran's nuclear efforts and to secure Israel's position of dominance in the middle east. The pressure keeps mounting and Obama's time to make some sort of decision grows short. 

The decision to confront Iran is a 'lose-lose' proposition, but Obama has little choice than to go ahead. 

These American maneuvers are part of the build up to a meeting between Medvedev and Obama at the G-20 meeting next week.