Iran in his Headlock

President Barack Obama made an public announcement today just before the G20 Summit with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and French President Nicholas Sarkozy that Iran has been building a nuclear facility they've kept hidden thus far. Iran had gotten wind that this was coming and tried to get out in front of it, but it's a loser's game.

This means that:

• Whatever Iran policy the Cheney Neocon Administration had been running was a MASSIVE FAIL.

• Whatever the Obama Admnistration has been doing to repair our position in the world is working.

Per one of Andrew Sullivan's readers regarding what must be Neocon panic today:

It must drive them nuts to see a clear, if limited, victory for a strategy that is diametrically opposed to their own. Their ideology being discredited by events, and so they characteristically fall back into blind fits of intransigence, like screaming, foot-stomping children.

That Goldberg emailer fails to see what has happened. Obama has known about this facility from day one. At Cairo, he reached out the Muslim world, undermining the Iranian regime's ability to engage in arm-waving, fear-mongering anti-Americanism. He built himself a triumvirate with Brown and Sarkozy, who actually have an intelligence presence in Iran. He used that presence to build an airtight case. He cut a deal with the Russians. He reached out to Iran, knowing that they would likely reject or ignore his overtures. Then, when Ahmadinejad comes to New York, having to face Western journalists, Obama announces the the existence of the Qom facility, turning the spotlight on Iran when they are unable to hide behind state-controlled media. Obama, cool and calm, pulled off a near-perfect diplomatic pincer.

I'm looking forward to what happens next.