Obama Slows Drumbeat For War With Iran

Obama Slows Drumbeat For War With Iran:

In his first nationally televised press conference in almost half a year, President Barack Obama directed impassioned criticism at Republican presidential candidates and other public figures who are quickening their drumbeat for war with Iran.

“This is not a game,” Obama said. “Those folks don’t have a lot of responsibilities. They are not commander-in-chief. And when I see the casualness with which some of these folks talk about war, I’m reminded of the costs involved in war.”

…Obama said Tuesday, “I see some of these folks who have a lot of bluster, and a lot of big talk, but when you actually ask them specifically what they would do, it turns out they repeat the things that we’ve been doing over the last three years — it indicates to me that that’s more about politics than actually trying to solve a difficult problem.”

…Obama went on, “the one thing that we have not done is we haven’t launched a war. If some of these folks think that it’s time to launch a war, they should say so, and they should explain to the American people exactly why they would do that and what the consequences would be. Everything else is just talk.”

[talkingpointsmemo/Brian Beutler/6 Mar 2012]