He's our onlly hope. His personality alone will give him all the leverage he needs with these thugs. They know they can trust him not to use any kind of force. They know he may have to threaten some, just to appease some of the less controllable of the unwashed idiots that he governs, but they know he will never use it. They can count on him to take advantage of photo ops and peace conferences, but in the end they know he will take no steps to stop them from doing anything they want. They will kiss his cheek in front of the camera's and he will kiss a different cheek lower and on their other side.

Obama will unite the peoples of the world and usher in the change we've been waiting for. There wil be no more war, strife, or conflict.

Friedman has been crying the blues about Global Warming for years. He should be happy that gas/oil prices are so high because it reduces demand so much. Unfortunately, now the Saudis et al are making twice as much money on the same amount of oil they were producing 1 year ago.
Who says we can't attack Iran? Why are Navy battle groups in the Persian Gulf if we can't attack Iran? I'll pay ten dollars a gallon for gas to knock out their nuclear capability.

We have been trying to mess with Iran for nearly 40 years. History suggests Persia is hard place to control. The people of Iran are descent and want Western influences. They need the McDonalds diplomacy dropped on them. But at least they aren't oppressed like Saudi Arabia, who is the real evil in the Middle East, it's just they allow American companies to run rampant on their land, and therein lies the rub.

"I'll pay ten dollars a gallon to knock out their nuclear facilities."

Personally I think your views might be a little extreme. Iwould hope you would reconsider them.

The consequences of ten dollar a gallon to the US and the rest of the industrialized world would be catastrophic.

You must really hate the Persians.

Is Iran doing anything different than we did to the Russians when they were in Afghanistan?

Russia invaded Afghanistan we invaded Iraq.

We trained and supplied weapons to the Mujahadeen.
Iran probably is training and suppying weapons to the Militias.

Our weapons and training and CIA advisors killed Russian soldiers.

Iranian weapons and training and perhaps advisors kill US soldiers.

Russia never threatened to strike at our training camps for the Mujahadeen in Pakistian.

We threaten to strike at supposed Iranian training camps in Iran.

What is the difference?

I heard Tony Snow say that the average Iranian citizen is more pro American than the average American college professor. Maybe we should swap.

@ anonymous 11:23 - the reason why I would support a strike on Irans nuclear facilities is because Ak-ma-wack-job has already informed the world that as soon as he has a nuclear weapon he will use (them) against Israel. Do you not believe him?
Your whole argument comparing us to the Iranians is ludicrous. That makes it right somehow for Iran to kill our soldiers because we helped the Afghans against the Soviet Union? Mmmmmmmm - did the USSR not do the same thing to us in Central America and Cuba. It was the cold war remember?
It would have been the Soviet Union's prerogative to attack us if they wanted to in retaliation for Afghanistan - they chose not to - that's not my problem