One year ago, Barack Obama convened his National Security Council in the Situation Room in the basement of the West Wing to talk about war with Iran. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was publicly threatening to attack Iranian nuclear sites.
If Netanyahu went ahead, the U.S. could be dragged into a war on Israel's terms, long before options to avoid conflict had been exhausted. Under fire from Republicans for being a fair-weather friend to Israel, Obama had scheduled a speech to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) and an interview with an American reporter widely read in Israel. The question in the Situation Room that day: What would happen if Obama publicly committed to a war to keep Iran from getting a nuclear weapon?
Obama had never made such a promise in public, and he thought it would help persuade Netanyahu to step back from the brink. But by speaking out, he would be putting the U.S.'s credibility on the line in the global effort to prevent Tehran from getting a weapon. If he promised to go to war and didn't follow through, other nations in the region, distrusting American assurances of protection, would start their own nuclear programs.
Obama said that he was aware of the risk but that he wanted to draw the line in public anyway. On March 4, 2012, Obama told the AIPAC crowd, "I will not hesitate to use force when it is necessary to defend the United States and its interests." In his interview with Jeffrey Goldberg of the Atlantic, he said, "As President of the United States, I don't bluff."
