Scowcroft On Obama

One of the more interesting dynamics of the domestic debate on Iran right now is that the neocons want to turn Obama into Carter but the saner conservatives see him as George H.W. Bush. And, in fact, it's impossible to imagine Carter being quite so realist and strategic as Obama has been. Al Jazeera interviews H.W.'s national security adviser. Nico pulls this exchange:

Q: Obama aides told reporters there is little to nothing the U.S. can do. Is it demonstrating a weakness?

SCOWCROFT: No I don’t think so. I don’t think so. How can we be more influential? We don’t control Iran. We don’t control the government obviously. There is little we can do to change the situation domestically in Iran right now and I think an attempt to change it is more likely to be turned against us and against the people who are demonstrating for more freedom and therefore I think we need to look at what we can do best, which is to try to influence Iranian behavior in the region, and with nuclear weapons.