Is Obama's appetite for diplomacy flagging? (afp photo)

Keith Koffler at White House Dossier notes President Obama struck some provocative new attitudes in a recent interview with Israeli media. In a tart deconstruction, Koffler notes the president voluntarily declines to rule out a military strike.

Obama: Well, what I’ve said consistently is, is that it is unacceptable for Iran to possess a nuclear weapon, that we’re going to do everything we can to prevent that from happening.  What I’ve also tried to do is build an international consensus so that Iran can’t somehow play a victim, can’t suggest somehow that they’re being singled out by the West.  They are the only country that has not been able to convince the International Atomic Energy Agency that they are pursuing nuclear power for peaceful means.  It’s not hard to do, but they haven’t been able to do it because all indicators are that they are in fact pursuing a nuclear weapon.

So we just pursued the toughest sanctions that have ever been applied against the Iranian government.  We followed those up with U.S. sanctions that are going to be tough.  Allies and partners are following up with those sanctions.  We want to continually ratchet up the costs of them pursuing this nuclear program.

Now, will that work?  We don’t know.  And we are going to continue to keep the door open for a diplomatic resolution of this challenge.  But I assure you that I have not taken options off the table.

Koffler breaks it down, noting that "everything we can" certainly leaves a lot of possibilities to consider. All of them -- including a military strike. Obama also expresses some doubt that sanctions will work. And without the usual prompting, offers that he's open to all options

Still, Koffler's got Obama's number:

I unfortunately doubt that Obama will use our military against Iran. More likely, he will take the passive aggressive approach of letting Israel do it while hand wringing away on the sidelines. But I might be wrong.