Obama goes with Neocon flow on Iran

Whether wittingly or witlessly, President Barack Obama is pursuing a neocon-charted path on Iran that parallels the one that George W. Bush took to war with Iraq–ratcheting up sanctions against the "enemy," refusing to tolerate more peaceful options, and swaggering along with the propagandistic tough-guy-ism of the major U.S. news media. The Obama administration is celebrating its victory in getting the UN Security Council on Wednesday to approve a fourth round of economic sanctions against Iran. Obama also is expected to sign on to even more draconian penalties that should soon sail through Congress. Obama may be thinking that his UN diplomatic achievement will buy him some credibility–and some time–with American neocons and Israel's Likud government, which favor a showdown with Iran over its nuclear program.