Free Pinheads and Patriots by Bill O'Reilly Page A

is a good example—where I believe the administration lumped together Saddam Hussein—a terrible guy—with al-Qaeda, which had nothing to do with Saddam Hussein—
    O’Reilly: All right. So we’ll get to that in a minute—
    Obama: And as a consequence, we ended up, uh—I think—misdirecting our resources. So they are all part of various terrorist networks that we have to shut down and we have to destroy, but they may not all be part and parcel of the same ideology.
    O’Reilly: But I still don’t understand—and I am asking this as an American, as well as a journalist—well, how threatening do you feel Iran is?
    Obama: See, look, I think…. And I think—
    O’Reilly: If Iran gets a nuclear weapon, okay?
    Obama: Mm-hmm.
    O’Reilly: To me, they are gonna give it to Hezbollah, if they can develop the technology. Well, why not? And, and then so we don’t have anything to do with it.
    Obama: Yeah.
    O’Reilly: So therefore, the next President of the United States is going to have to make a decision—
    Obama: Right.
    O’Reilly: About Iran, whether to stop them militarily. Because I don’t believe…. If diplomacy works, fine; but you have got to have a plan B. And, and a lot of people are saying, “Look, Barack Obama is not going to attack Iran.”
    Obama: Well, here, here, here—here is where you and I agree. It is unacceptable for Iran to possess a nuclear weapon. It’s a game changer—and I have said that repeatedly. I have also said I would never take a military option off the table.
    O’Reilly: But would you prepare for one?
    Obama: Well…. Listen—
    O’Reilly: Answer the question, Senator.
    Obama: No. No, that—
    O’Reilly: Anybody can “option.” But would you prepare for it?
    Obama: Look, it is not appropriate for somebody—who is one of two people who could be the President of the United States—to start tipping their hand in terms of what their plans might be with respect to Iran. It’s sufficient to say I would not take the military option off the table, and that I will never hesitate to use our military force in order to protect the homeland and the United States’ interests. But—where I disagree with you, is the notion that we have exhausted every other resource. Because the fact of the matter is, is that for six, seven years during this administration, we weren’t working close—as closely as we needed to with the Europeans to, to—
    O’Reilly: All right.
    Obama: —to create—
    O’Reilly: Diplomacy might work—
    Obama: —to, to—
    O’Reilly: You might be able to sanction economically….
    Obama: Sanctions—sanctions….
    O’Reilly: Maybe.
    Obama: Maybe.
    O’Reilly: But that’s, that’s all hypothetical.
    Obama: But, but what? Everything is hypothetical. But the question is—are we trying to do what we need to do to ratchet up the pressure on them to change their—
    O’Reilly: Okay. We’ll assume that you are gonna ratchet everything you could ratchet up. But I am going to assume that Iran is gonna say, “Blank you, we are gonna do what we want.”
    Obama: Yeah. [ Laughs. ]
    O’Reilly: And I want a President—whether it’s you or McCain—who says—
    Obama: Right.
    O’Reilly: “You ain’t doing that.”
    Obama: Okay.
    ----
    So what’s happened since this interview? Iran has continued to develop its nuclear weapons program despite threats and overall angst by many people who understand the dangers of having killers with no conscience possessing nukes. After a year and a half in office, President Obama was finally able to get some sanctions placed on that country, primarily freezing Iranian assets abroad, limitingoil sales, and preventing Iranian banks from doing business internationally.
    But is there anyone on earth who really thinks