Now what he really meant to say was... (Reuters/Adrees Latif)
Quartz: Did Iran’s president just admit that it has been pursuing nuclear weapons?
Something fascinating just came over the transom from Tehran: In an interview to the state-owned news service IRNA, president Hassan Rouhani threatened that “if the other side breaches the deal, we will go back to the old path, stronger than what they can imagine.”
We can set aside the belligerent tone here: Bluster and bullying have long been the Tehran regime’s stock-in-trade. But it’s worth spending a few minutes parsing Rouhani’s words. The “other side” is the collection of world powers, known as the P5+1, that are currently negotiating with Iran over its nuclear program. (They’ve just extended the deadline by a week, to July 7.) The “deal” is a long-sought bargain that would allow the regime in Tehran to pursue peaceful nuclear technology while the world lifts economic sanctions on Iran.
Update: Iran Threatens to Go Nuclear If Talks Fail -- Washington Free Beacon
WNU Editor: Everyone believes that Iran was (and is) pursuing a nuclear weapons program .... what no one knows for sure is on how committed they are to it, and what are the short/medium/and long term goals for their program ... i.e. to have a deliverable arsenal of nuclear weapons, a few nuclear weapons, just the knowledge and resources to complete a bomb quickly if they should decide to go down that route, or to have the infrastructure to produce enriched nuclear material with an option to pursue a weapons program in the future. What's my take .... I have always believed that Iran wants something along the lines of what India and Pakistan now presently have .... about a hundred nuclear weapons that can be deployed quickly and delivered when the order is given. This agreement may delay their long term objectives .... but I believe that they are committed to it, and this is just a means to eventually achieve their overall strategy.
As long as Iran's calling card remains "death to America" it's understandable why America would want to do all in its power to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons. Unfortunately even if America threw EVERYTHING within its power into trying to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons or trying to get Iran to changing its calling card in deed and word I do not believe it could do so. As such, the sanctions as ineffective as they are will be lifted and Iran will acquire whatever nuclear weapons capabilities it wants and there is absolutely nothing America can do to alter this.
ReplyDeleteEssentially the Pentagon and other American agencies need to prepare based upon this reality. No one is going to help us here. I understood this back in early 2008 but then I thought help from the Israelis and Sunni Arab states would be forthcoming. To date, this has not occurred. We should prepare as though NO ONE is going to help us. Unfortunately we've lost 7+ years that could have been spent on this.
If I were POTUS then, I'd have had a team working on our national defense strategy in the event the Israelis and the Sunni Arabs somehow failed to deal with this problem of a nuclear armed Iran. Since they've chosen not to deal with this, this would seem the same as failing.
Essentially we are going to have a nuclear armed Iran with the ability to do incalculable damage to America and its interests and its calling card was and remains "death to America." Since sanctions only remain at the pleasure of the Iranian government, they'd be gone tomorrow if the Iranians wished this to be so. As it is, they only serve to galvanize opposition to America.
We will be dealing with an Iran who has the ability to do incalculable harm to America and its interests, has nuclear weapons, is uninhibited by sanctions, has Russia and China the world's most powerful countries as it backers. How do we deal with this?
I'd like some type of UN tribunal to settle our differences, however, I don't think America can get a fair trial in such a situation. Even if we could get a fair trial, if the trial should find that Iran owes America reparations, how do we collect?
America faces hostile news media coverage. Iran does not. As such, there currently exists no way to ensure Iranian compliance with any agreement. Even if the media is not enough, American "allies" in Europe stand ready to punish American for any and all reasons. Iran faces no such threat. As such, America would have no choice but to honor the results of the tribunal. As for Iran, they could tell the tribunal to GO POUD SAND or whatever.
We should have been preparing for all of this. It seems we did not. It may not be to late to make the proper adjustments but time is short!!