As the Pulitzer Prize-winning syndicated columnist William Safire observed in the New York Times, China may have been encouraged to take this step by the Clinton-Gore team's feckless response to Vladimir Putin's ruthless bid to consolidate his political position.
Rather, America's feckless diplomacy toward Iran to date is the result of the administration's early misunderstanding of Iraq and of Iranian and Arab interests.
More than his failure to pass his domestic agenda on health care and global warming despite his Democratic Party's control over both houses of Congress, Iran's announcement on Thursday that it is a nuclear power and has the capacity to produce weapons-grade uranium is a testament to Obama's feckless incompetence.