Robert Gates, Secretary of Defense – and the head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Mike Mullen – appeared on separate TV shows, Sunday, and said the same thing two completely opposite ways.
The United States believes Iran has stockpiled enough nuclear fuel to make a bomb, U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Mike Mullen said on Sunday.
“We think they do, quite frankly,” Mullen said on CNN’s “State of the Union” program when asked whether Iran has enough fissile material for a nuclear weapon.
“And Iran having nuclear weapons, I’ve believed for a long time, is a very very bad outcome — for the region and for the world,” Mullen said.
Sure sounds like imminent danger – to any ignorant watcher who hasn’t a clue about the differences between low-grade fissile material and weapons grade – and what it takes to grow from one to the other.
Iran is not close to having a nuclear weapon, which gives the United States and others time to try to persuade Tehran to abandon its suspected atomic arms program, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said on Sunday.
“They’re not close to a stockpile, they’re not close to a weapon at this point, and so there is some time,” Gates said on NBC television’s “Meet The Press.”
The challenge, Gates said, is finding a balance between sanctions to pressure Iran and incentives for engagement with the United States and Europe. A sharp decline in oil prices since last year increases the chances for a resolution. “There are economic costs to this program; they (the Iranians) do face economic challenges at home.”
Disingenuous would be the kindest thing I can say about Mullen.
My question is – will the Obama Administration unify our military policies or let the divisions continue?
Sounds like Gates may stay in politics after he retires.
Mullen will end up on the usual Bored of Directors of some Pentagon vendor.
This would make sense as to why Obama said the reason we went into Iraq was to end Sadam’s regime as opposed to the real reason of the weapons of mass distruction.
Now we can use that excuse all over again!
So what if Iran gets a bomb? So what? Does anyone *really* think they’d use it? They’re not as crazy there as the Republicans would have us think, you know, that stupid “Axis of Evil” stuff. Just chill, everyone. We have grownups in charge now. Other slightly imbalanced regimes have nukes now, including India and Pakistan (the most likely place for one being used, IMHO) and Israel.
And really, you can’t *prevent* any country from having nukes unless you continuously bomb it back to the stone age. The technology is out there and can be obtained. What would be more effective in preventing nations from getting nukes would be if the countries that currently HAVE nukes to get rid of theirs. It’s a status thing, to be part of the “nuclear elite”.
Eideard said, “Sure sounds like imminent danger – to any ignorant watcher who hasn’t a clue about the differences between low-grade fissile material and weapons grade”
Unless you know for SURE how many operational centrifuges they have, your statement above is UTTERLY without meaning.
“Disingenuous would be the kindest thing I can say about Mullen.” /// Why is that? Do you think the progress of a secret dispersed underground uninspected nuclear program is so well known as to make one opinion false and the other true?
Why are there nuclear facilities no where near the Iran Power grid?
Why is the rocket program progressing steadily to ICBM capability?
Whats your margin for error?
>> hydeau said,
>> So what if Iran gets a bomb? So what? Does anyone *really* think they’d use it?
You raise a good point — and one I’ll have to think about.
But I _DO_ think India and Pakistan might use their nukes.
Who is screaming to pre-preemptively bomb them?
# 3 Phydeau said, “So what if Iran gets a bomb? So what? Does anyone *really* think they’d use it?”
You mean like launch a nuc missile strike? No way. That is traceable back to them and would result in Iran being turned into a glass parking lot.
Do I think they might put a nuke on a cargo ship and send it into a western port so as to be “anonymous”? Maybe. The mullahs who run Iran are certifiable.
The problem is neither of these guys are the guys tha are supposed to know the answer to Iran’s nuclear stockpile or lack thereof. The CIA is who is tasked with answering that and if it can’t be seen with a satellite they don’t have a clue. Say thanks to Jimmy Carter for that.
#3–Phydeau==did you think Hitler would really exterminate the jews? If yes, why shouldn’t we think Iran would too when like Hitler it says thats exactly what it wants to do?
#6.. Because if they use them it would be on each other.
Paddy-O, do some reading about who really runs Iran. Hint: it’s not Ahmadinejad. You’re just parroting the “Axis of Evil” line that the Republicans used to keep everyone in fear. That dog won’t hunt any more.
And bobbo, think about it… Israel is so small that any nuke dropped on it would vaporize a significant number of Palestinians too. You have to look behind the propaganda and find out what a country really wants. That’s called diplomacy, and the U.S. hasn’t practiced it for the past 8 years.
# 11 Phydeau said, “Paddy-O, do some reading about who really runs Iran. Hint: it’s not Ahmadinejad.”
Are you feeling all right? Did you even read what I wrote? Do you know what a mullah is? You think Ahmadinejad is a mullah?
Are you really a little kid using your parents computer without permission?
Sorry there Paddy-O, I treated you seriously for a moment there, instead of the troll you are.
# 13 Phydeau said, “Sorry there Paddy-O, I treated you seriously for a moment”
Did you read what I wrote?
US Economy in the tank = Goooodbye Iran.
Folks, Paddy-O, despite being a flaming troll, does express a sentiment held by a some people in this country, the ones thoroughly conditioned by 8 years of Bush fear-mongering. The whole “Axis of Evil” thing. Calling leaders of foreign countries “certifiable”. (Maybe Paddy-O got that from Rush.) And all the other sh*t that they said to scare Americans into going along with their rancid agenda. They saw the world in black and white: Either you are with us, or you are a slavering insane terrorist with an unquenchable thirst to destroy all that is good and right in the world, blah blah blah.
Read the wikipedia page on Ali Khamenei — the guy may have hostility toward the U.S., but he’s not “certifiable.”
Iran isn’t the friendliest country toward the U.S. (maybe that nastiness with us overthrowing their govt. and installing the Shah might have something to do with it) but that’s what diplomacy is for. As Winston Churchill said, “It is better to jaw-jaw than to war-war.”
#11–Phydeau==do I think a religious nutball safe in his bunker would explode “a small nuke” that takes out all of Israel plus a good number of Arabs as well? Why, yes I do. I take world leaders at their word. Thats how I know there are no homosexuals in Iran.
#6–We don’t screw with countries with nukes that’s why every country without them wants them.
Well bobbo, if I truly thought that the leaders of Iran were insane, I would agree with you. But I don’t believe they’re insane, and I think no one in the world does either except for that small group of people in America that have been affected by the Bush fear-mongering. Unfriendly to the U.S., yet. Hostile, maybe. But insane, no.
#14, Paddy-O
Did you read what I wrote?
Why? Did you post something halfway intelligent? Were you aware of how your reputation proceeds you?
#18 Exactly, steveo. That’s why the best way to discourage countries from getting nukes is for the ones that already have them to get rid of them.
Perhaps the intelligence people know something more about Iranian production of highly enriched Uranium than has been released.
This whole ‘threat’ is a farce. The Persians have one of the oldest and best developed biological and chemical weapons programs in the world. They could wipe out everybody on earth five times over at least with all of the spores, virus’ and various pathogenic crap they have stockpiled. It’s not like they have even been very secretive about it. The mere fact that you have yet to die from anthrax, some horrible flu, or starvation after wheat rust destroyed everything edible, is evidence that Iran’s leaders are not insane.
Which is the strange path of logic I have taken to conclude that Iran wants a nuclear program merely for nuclear power; they can see that they won’t be able to ride on oil forever, and they kind of want their TV’s and microwaves to work, now and in the future. Why build nuclear bombs for zillions that won’t be rocket mountable until the second of third generation designs, when you already have far more deadly pathogens that can be smuggled in a small vial, as opposed to a large suitcase? Why bother, really?
>Does anyone *really* think they’d use it? They’re not as crazy there as the Republicans would have us think, you know, that stupid “Axis of Evil” stuff.
Probably not, but Rafsanjani has said that Israel can be destroyed in one attack while a counterattack would take out only a small part of the Arab world.
So at what point does the threat become imminent, Eideard? Why don’t you just admit you don’t care if they have nuclear weapons? Why the charade?
#25 We have had the imminent threat of nuclear weapons being used as long as there have been nuclear weapons. Remember that little thing called the cold war? When thousands of nuclear ICBMs ready to launch at a moment’s notice were pointed at the U.S.? We didn’t think of obliterating the U.S.S.R. just because they had nukes. Of course, they could retaliate, which adds credence to the idea that Iran wants a nuke so the U.S. won’t push them around.
It’s not that we don’t care if a nation gets a nuke. It’s just that sovereign nations can do what they want (at least that was the theory before Bush) and we just have to deal with it using diplomacy, like we did with the much larger and more dangerous U.S.S.R.
Ya know, it’s understandable to be shaking in your shoes when a large nation has thousands of powerful rockets with nukes on them pointed at you, ready to launch at a moment’s notice. But to see the current crop of right-wing wackos getting so afraid, getting their panties in a twist, sobbing fearfully that Iran might possibly, someday, perhaps, get one nuke… sheesh. What wimps. Grow some balls, y’all. We’ve handled this kind of stuff before.
>Does anyone *really* think they’d use it? They’re not as crazy there as the Republicans would have us think, you know, that stupid “Axis of Evil” stuff.
Probably not, but Rafsanjani has said that Israel can be destroyed in one attack while a counterattack would take out only a small part of the Arab world.
So what? People say lots of blustery things. They’re playing to their own countrymen, and to other nations. That’s what diplomacy is about.