Gun-Shy America Is Losing The Best Chance To Stop Iran

[Purveyor]

A grippingly topical nightmare unfolded in a television drama last week. Iran had secretly built a nuclear bomb, transforming the balance of power in the Middle East. All the United States could do was cut a deal and hope for the best as Tehran demanded a seat on the security council of the United Nations.

John Bolton snorts with derision at the scenario. But the only bit that he finds remotely funny is the prospect of Iran getting a seat on the security council; to him, long-time hawk and former American ambassador to the UN, the rest is a very real and global danger. Scientific experts and intelligence agencies are divided on when Iran might be able to build a bomb: it may be one, two, five or more years away from completion. For Bolton, this uncertainty misses the vital point.

“As we all know, intelligence estimates can be wrong in multiple directions – it may be the Iranians are farther away or it may be they are a lot closer. But you cannot base your policy on the hope of ‘just in time’ nonproliferation. You have to look at the strategic position that Iran has been pursuing for close to 20 years now, which is that they want a nuclear weapons capability, and take steps to prevent that before it happens.”

A lawyer turned diplomat, Bolton, 59, has the rumpled suit and shaggy hair of an eccentric physicist. Behind the wire-rimmed glasses, however, a Vulcan logic drives him to be one of the most fluent advocates of forceful action to stop Iran going nuclear.

First, he argues, Iran is a threat to more than the Middle East: “When you add up the record of Iran in supporting terrorism, it is clearly seeking hegemony in the region and to become a player on the world stage. But Iran and North Korea are also important, not simply because of the threats they pose themselves, but because of the risk of even greater proliferation if they are perceived as having acquired and kept nuclear weapons contrary to the efforts of the US and others.

“As the Arab states see Iran progressing towards nuclear weapons they contemplate getting nuclear weapons themselves. In the past year over a dozen Arab countries have declared to the IAEA that they, too, want peaceful civil nuclear programmes. That’s step one . So the stakes are very high.”

---EOE---

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article2982761.ece

[Purveyor]

1. I post this article in the spirit that we need to know what "those people" are thinking... eom

[dysfunctional press]

2. "gun-shy america"...???

first time i've heard us referred to in that way. :shrug:

[Sarah Ibarruri]

4. I agree! That *is* scary! Since when has this country had gun-shyness? nt

[mmonk]

9. "gun shy"

Too funny.

[Cha]

10. That's revoltin' bolton for ya..

Since the truth doesn't suit his purpose then he makes up shit like the rest of the fa$ci$t a$$holes.

[ixion]

3. As always, the neocon hypocrisy, hubris and illogic is staggering

really.

[PsN2Wind]

5. The "long-time hawk"

became a hawk AFTER he decided that although he supported the war in VietNam he himself had no desire to die in a rice paddy in South-east Asia. Probably most all of those whose names are on that long black wall had no desire to do so either. A lotta hawks that conveniently opted out of the war of their generation but now have no problem sending other peoples kids to die to show how tough they are.

[Jim__]

6. bolton - another bush admin chicken-hawk - n/t

[magellan]

7. The only "Vulcan" Bolton resembles is the bearded Spock from 'Mirror Mirror'

And even that comparison of logic is generous.

[Kucinich4America]

8. Vulcan LOGIC??

Sorry, I'm just not seeing it.