The Epic Fail of No Consequences

Many years ago I dated a man who had a young daughter. One day he and I took our respective children bowling. We bowled our requisit three games and then got ready to leave. My friends daughter decided she wasn't going anywhere. My friend, I kid you not, began to count. One. Twoo. Threee... Now, my Mom counted a couple of times but she never made it past two. I knew better. There were consequences for misbehaving and they far outweighed the momentary thrill of "acting up." My friend's daughter knew that there would be no consequences and as a result she didn't budge.*

Our relationship with Iran bears a striking resemblence to my former friend and his daughter. Iran knows that we will make absolute fools out of ourselves counting to infinity but we will not act.

Legal Insurrection:

My, how the tables have turned.

It used to be that the Obama administration gave Iran deadlines on reaching agreement on nuclear fuel reprocessing. The most recent deadline was December 31.

None of those deadlines meant anything, as the Iranians figured out long ago.

That's the problem with deadlines, which Obama hasn't learned. Deadlines only mean something if the failure to meet the deadline has consequences.

Now the Iranians have given us a deadline to reach agreement on their terms, or they will simply ramp up their own nuclear fuel production:

Iran warned on Saturday the West has until the end of the month to accept Teheran's counterproposal to a UN-drafted plan on a nuclear exchange, or the country will start producing nuclear fuel on its own.

Somehow, I think the Iranians will put more weight behind their deadline to us, than we have put behind our deadlines to them.

We are the weak horse in this race and nobody respects a wuss. Iran knows this. Obama doesn't.

*The standoff at the abowling alley ended when I told my friend to take my kids out to the car. Once he was out the door I told his daughter that if she didn't get in gear I would put her over my knee and spank her in front of everyone. She hesitated, I took a step towards her and she (wisely) made for the door. She knew there would be consequences. Honestly, I don't miss him at all but I still miss her. We got along very well from that day forward.