IRAN TO PROTEST U.S. AT U.N. – AT 11:12 A.M. ET:  What?  Is it possible that an enemy of the United States thinks Obama is a tough guy?  Probably not.  This is just a rhetorical ploy: 

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran will lodge a complaint with the United Nations about what it sees as U.S. President Barack Obama's threat to attack it with nuclear weapons, the foreign ministry said on Sunday.

Obama made clear last week that Iran and North Korea were excluded from new limits on the use of U.S. atomic weapons -- something Tehran interpreted as a threat from a long-standing adversary to attack it with nuclear bombs.

"The recent statement by the U.S. president ... implicitly intimidates the Iranian nation with the deployment of nuclear arms," Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said in a televised meeting with military and security officials.

"This statement is very strange and the world should not ignore it since in the 21st century, which is the era of support for human rights and campaigning against terrorism, the head of a country is threatening to use nuclear war."

COMMENT:  The Iranians know that Obama has no plans to attack them with nuclear weapons, or anything else other than whipped cream.  But this is a slick propaganda move.

Now, does Obama reply by standing firm and ridiculing the mullah madness?  Or does he show his usual eight-flavor pudding spine and "clarify" his policy, essentially satisfying the Iranians.  Stand by.

April 11, 2010