THE GANG THAT COULDN'T SPEAK STRAIGHT:

Hillary Clinton's Iran Indiscretion (Jim Hoagland, July 26, 2009, Washington Post)

The underlying subject for today is the evolving U.S. discussion on Iran's nuclear weapons capability. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton drew attention to that subject last week with a few ill-considered words in a televised town hall meeting in Thailand. Here is the New York Times account of what she said:

"We want Iran to calculate what I think is a fair assessment, that if the U.S. extends a defense umbrella over the region, if we do even more to support the military capacity of those in the Gulf, it's unlikely that Iran will be any stronger or safer, because they won't be able to intimidate and dominate, as they apparently believe they can, once they have a nuclear weapon."

These words are ill-considered not because they are wrong or wrongheaded. The problem is that they state an obvious truth in obvious language. "Defense umbrella" is a term codified by decades of Cold War experience and theory. It is strategic shorthand for the commitment that an attack on our ally is an attack on us and will be dealt with as such -- including the use of nuclear weapons if necessary.

The United States has not extended such an explicit guarantee to its Arab allies in the Gulf. But the Carter Doctrine of 1980 hinted at such a commitment. And there was a lively, inconclusive internal debate during George W. Bush's second term about extending the U.S. nuclear umbrella to Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Turkey and other regional powers to keep them from seeking their own nuclear weapons.

I wrote approvingly of that idea then and still support it. It was also echoed during a presidential campaign debate in 2008 when Clinton said the United States "should be looking to create an umbrella of deterrence that goes much further than just Israel." Her remarks in Thailand did not come out of the blue. They are precisely what Washington should be -- and no doubt is -- considering.

But President Obama has yet to bless the thought.

There's precious little evidence that the Secretary of State or the VP care what Mr. Obama blesses.

Posted by Orrin Judd at July 26, 2009 7:39 AM