Commenter mike b captures Obama's stance toward Iran with a fascinating analogy:

....went down to a bar I frequent for a cold one, and there was some drunken fool there, really huge guy, and he had this other guy (little guy, maybe 100 lbs) by the throat. Like everybody else in the place, I was appalled and outraged, but I didn't do anything to help stop what was going on. I saw it as an 'extroardinary debate', and watched, and said nothing. After this guy got through trashing the little guy, who was laying on the floor, I stepped over him and told the big guy that I was having a party at my place on the 4th, and invited him over for hotdogs.