20 May 2008
War with Iran?
Posted by Joy Bischoff under: World Affairs .
Headline on the Drudge Report, this article from the Jerusalem Post is an eye popper:
‘Bush intends to attack Iran before the end of his term’
US President George W. Bush intends to attack Iran in the upcoming months, before the end of his term, Army Radio quoted a senior official in Jerusalem as saying Tuesday.
The official claimed that a senior member of the president’s entourage, which concluded a trip to Israel last week, said during a closed meeting that Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney were of the opinion that military action was called for.
However, the official continued, “the hesitancy of Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice” was preventing the administration from deciding to launch such an attack on the Islamic Republic, for the time being.
The report stated that according to assessments in Israel, recent turmoil in Lebanon, where Hizbullah de facto established control of the country, was advancing an American attack.
Bush, the officials said, opined that Hizbullah’s show of strength was evidence of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s growing influence. They said that according to Bush, “the disease must be treated - not its symptoms.”
In an address to the Knesset during his visit here last week, Bush said that “the president of Iran dreams of returning the Middle East to the Middle Ages.”
US President George W. Bush during his Knesset address.
Photo: AP
“America stands with you in firmly opposing Iran’s nuclear weapons ambitions,” Bush said. “Permitting the world’s leading sponsor of terror to possess the world’s deadliest weapon would be an unforgivable betrayal of future generations. For the sake of peace, the world must not allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon.”
4 Comments so far...
Cameron Says:
20 May 2008 at 8:07 am.
I sure hope this is posturing.
Angela Rogin Says:
20 May 2008 at 10:46 am.
I’m with you, Cameron. It may be posturing to get some kind of response but it is a dangerous game. One where we would be surrounded by lots of enemies.
Mac Says:
20 May 2008 at 10:59 am.
We are already surrounded by a lot of unseen enemies. Danger from terrorists, not only individuals but nations as well, is real. These guys want our blood. We have to stop them and we don’t want the Iranian nutjob president making good on his threat to annihilate Israel. Preemptive strike may be the only way to do the job.
Matt Says:
20 May 2008 at 11:26 am.
There has been so much inside news about how much Bush/Cheney want to go after Iran that I don’t really believe the denial. I think it is posturing but what they want is for Iran to seem like the aggressor. The reason is that they believe the next administration won’t have the guts to do the job and by the time they are out of office, Iran will be too strong to stop. I bet the administration is ticked that they got outed in Israel.
White House denies story about attacking Iran
WASHINGTON - The White House on Tuesday denied a published report in Israel that said President Bush intends to attack Iran before the end of his term in January.
A story in the Jerusalem Post quoted a “senior official” there as saying that Bush plans to attack Iran in the coming months. The story says the unidentified official claimed that a “senior member” of Bush’s traveling entourage made the statement about attacking Iran in a closed meeting. Bush was in Israel last week.
The article also says the unnamed Bush official said that Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney “were of the opinion that military action were called for.”
“An article in today’s Jerusalem Post about the president’s position on Iran that quotes unnamed sources — quoting unnamed sources — is not worth the paper it’s written on,” White House press secretary Dana Perino said in a statement.
“Let me respond by reaffirming the policy of the administration: We, along with our international allies who want peace in the Middle East, remain opposed to Iran’s ambitions to obtain a nuclear weapon,” Perino said. “To that end, we are working to bring tough diplomatic and economic pressure on the Iranians to get them to change their behavior and to halt their uranium enrichment program.”
Perino said the “president of the United States should never take options off the table, but our preference and our actions for dealing with this matter remain through peaceful diplomatic means. Nothing has changed in that regard.”
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080520/ap_on_go_pr_wh/bush_iran
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