Ex-US official: Bush would approve Iran attack

[Scurrilous]

Richard Perle says, ‘If strike on Iran required US participation for success, president would agree'

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3355234,00.html

<snip>

"If all options were exhausted in the attempt to stop the Iranian nuclear project, and US military involvement was needed for a successful strike on Tehran, US President George Bush would give the green light for the operation, former director of the US Defense Policy Board Advisory Committee, Richard Perle, told the Herzliya Conference on Sunday evening.

"The worst outcome is a failed military option," Perle said. Discussing a possible US involvement in a strike on Iran , he added: "Would this president do it? I think that until the day he leaves office, this is a president that, if he is told, 'Mr. President, you are at the point of no return,' I have very little doubt that this president would order the necessary military action."

Perle began his speech by saying it wasn't clear whether "it's our time or Iran's that is over."

He said the "current policy… will not by itself lead the Iranians to abandon their nuclear weapons program. If we continue to do what we are doing, Iran will become a nuclear weapons state."

"Iran with nuclear weapons will not be so easily deterred and contained as we sometimes think, as we have become accustomed to deterrence in the Cold War," Perle said, adding: "When deterrence fails, it fails not gently, but catastrophically."



US under secretary of state: We won't allow nuclear Iran'

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3355144,00.html

Nicholas Burns says ‘There is no doubt Iran seeking nuclear military weapons; stationing of two battle groups in Persian Gulf is part of our response’; adds: We are committed to being Israel's strongest security partner

<snip>

"There is no doubt that Iran's nuclear program is an attempt by the Islamic Republic to gain military nuclear weapons, and the United States will not allow Tehran to go nuclear, the US Under-Secretary of State for Political Affairs, Ambassador Nicholas Burns, said during the Herzliya Conference Sunday evening.

"Iran is seeking a nuclear weapon, there's no doubt about it," Burns said, adding: "There's no debate among experts. It's seeking a nuclear weapon at its plant at Nantz."

The US under-secretary added that his country "is not seeking, at all, a confrontation with Iran," but said that "the policy of the United States is that we cannot allow Iran to become a nuclear weapons state." His declaration was met with applause among the delegates attending the conference.

"The US has not gone out to look for an argument with Iran," Burns emphasized, but Iran has refused to back down in its attempt to destabilize the region, prompting the US to station "two battle groups in the Persian gulf," and to target Iranian networks enabling attacks on US soldiers in Iraq. "We have an absolute right to defend our soldiers," he added."

[3waygeek]

1. Quelle surprise n/t

[ckramer]

2. Only war can correct the 31% approval ratings

So why not?

[illinoisprogressive]

3. I thought about this when watching Richardson's announcement and

knew if he was president or sec of state Iran would be eating out of his hand and there'd be no war

[pinto]

4. These "architects" of our foreign policy are a dangerous lot.

We may see Bush as a somewhat bumbling front man, sold on their snake oil, and a conniving CinC, but these guys are at least as dangerous in that they may have a foreign policy voice long after Bush moves to Houston, or Dallas or wherever.

(on edit) I trust a Dem Prez in '09 will move to clean the Administration house, though, as only a chief executive can do, and relegate these guys to a backwater, discredited think tank status.

[Fovea]

5. It's the end of the world as we know it.

I don't feel fine. I feel like maybe I should have not spent that time reading Michel de Notre Dame's 'Centuries' in my youth.

It is like the 'Dead Zone' only without the happy ending.

When I see Richard Perle saying shit like this, I keep waiting for his face to disolve like Herr Todt in the 'Raiders of the Lost Ark.'

[mrdmk]

6. Oh really, gee I must have been living in a cave

Mr. Bush Jr. has been sticking his finger up Iran's nose ever since he has been selected president.

Bush Jr. really got into the act in his 2002 SOTU, "the axis of evil" speech.

The truth be known, Iran has indicated time and time again that they wanted to have talks with us to no avail.

[Jack Rabbit]

7. "If all options were exhausted"

If all options were exhausted in the attempt to stop the Iranian nuclear project, and US military involvement was needed for a successful strike on Tehran, US President George Bush would give the green light for the operation . . . Richard Perle . . . told the Herzliya Conference on Sunday evening.

Taken at face value, that means Bush is not going to attack Iran unless he's really certifiable. Iran is years away from developing a nuclear weapon and, therefore, there will still be unexhausted options when Mr. Bush leaves office, even assuming that he will leave on January 20, 2009 and not before.

Unfortunately, it is now an open question whether Mr. Bush is certifiable. There may very well be reasons, although not good ones, that Mr. Bush will order an attack on Iran even though "all options" cannot have possibly been exhausted.

[gratuitous]

8. When the only tool on your belt is a hammer

Every problem looks like a nail.

[alfredo]

9. Perle is the neo con/Straussian guru to this administration.

He wants war. He wants to convince us that is the only option.


Remember this gem by "The Prince of Darkness"?

"If we let our vision of the world go forth, and we embrace it entirely, and we don't try to piece together clever diplomacy but just wage total war, our children will sing great songs about us years from now." Richard Perle

[Nihil]

11. Is that quote real?

Shit.
:wow:

[alfredo]

12. Yes it is.

[peacetalksforall]

10. "...point of no return..." GIVE ME A BREAK. What sickening drama.

Our higher beings are needed - please pray or converse we can't go further with these creatures in charge. ALL FOR ISRAEL, hey Richard? FORWARD FOR ISRAEL - kill us all.

[donkeyotay]

13. When did we elect Richard Perle, or any of the other nasty bastards

ruining the planet? All of our kowtowing to you has worked out so well. Onward and upward. Headline: Neocons Destroy America. No doubt puppet master knows the truth about his boy. We have entered a most dangerous time:

"Would this president do it? I think that until the day he leaves office, this is a president that, if he is told, 'Mr. President, you are at the point of no return,' I have very little doubt that this president would order the necessary military action."

Get a clue George. That voice you hear in your head...Perle isn't God.

[legin]

14. There is a good 'bookmarkable' speaker list

http://www.herzliyaconference.org/Eng/_Articles/Article.asp?CategoryID=223&ArticleID=1598

Mostly israelis but some not, useful for identifying alligencies.

Derthowitz is there, Mitt Romeny and others.

[SammyWinstonJack]

15. Gee, there's a shocker, NOT! nt

[CatholicEdHead]

16. Yet pre-1979 Cheney et al wanted to GIVE Iran nukes

when the Shah was still in power to put more fossil fuels on the global market. I still have a March 2006 Podcast from Radio National Australia which talks about it.