It is 3 am and the Phone is Ringing in the White House by Gregory Hilton

It is 3 am and the phone is ringing in the White House. In the past week a secret nuclear plant in Iran was exposed and others obviously exist. The Islamic Republic’s missile tests were successful. Highly enriched weapons grade nuclear fuel is being manufactured, and development of the last stage, a warhead, is well underway. The rosy view of the 2007 National Intelligence Estimate was wrong. The weapons work never stopped.
Iran says we must respect its “nuclear rights,” and they will not discuss the issue. Israel can strike, but only American can permanently take out a hard target. Sen. Evan Bayh (D-IN) of the Intelligence Committee has told the President we have to react soon, and the only thing the Iranians respect is strength. Last year the President told us Afghanistan was “a war of necessity.” He fired the commander, installed General McChrystal, and demanded a new strategy. That strategy has been sitting in the Oval Office for a month, and it has been 10 weeks since the President spoke to his Afghan Commander.
The Joint Chiefs of Staff will be requesting 30 to 40,000 new troops, and they have said the war will end in failure without them. The most difficult opposition the Obama Administration faces is from liberal Democrats. Vice President Biden wants to concentrate on Pakistan rather than Afghanistan. America can train the Afghan National Army to defeat the Taliban and al Qaeda, but first we have to win the battle of Capitol Hill.
The liberal columnist Richard Cohen had this to say today: “The trouble with Obama is that he gets into the moment and means what he says for that moment only. He meant what he said when he called Afghanistan a “war of necessity” — and now is not necessarily so sure. He meant what he said about the public option in his health care plan — and then again maybe not. He would not prosecute CIA agents for getting rough with detainees — and then again maybe he would.”