Recap: Iran Presents No Threat, Isn’t Building a Bomb, and War Would Mean Reckless Disaster

You might have thought the warmongering had died down by now, but just yesterday former Israeli Military Intelligence chief Maj.-Gen. Amos Yadlin said “that Iran had enough material to develop ‘four or five’ nuclear bombs, adding that it was imperative for Israel to maintain good relations with members of the international community capable of dealing with that threat.” A more explicit articulation of Israel’s intentions of attacking Iran is hard to find (no, not really.)

But headlines like the ones that statement produced allow for the myth of an Iranian nuclear weapons to proliferate (no pun). In the words of a recent blog post at FPIF, “No, Really, Iran Isn’t Developing Nuclear Weapons.” Or take Seymour Hersh, an expert on the issue:

…Robert Kelley, a retired I.A.E.A. director and nuclear engineer who previously spent more than thirty years with the Department of Energy’s nuclear-weapons program, told me that he could find very little new information in the I.A.E.A. report. He noted that hundreds of pages of material appears to come from a single source: a laptop computer, allegedly supplied to the I.A.E.A. by a Western intelligence agency, whose provenance could not be established. Those materials, and others, “were old news,” Kelley said, and known to many journalists. “I wonder why this same stuff is now considered ‘new information’ by the same reporters.”

…Greg Thielmann, a former State Department and Senate Intelligence Committee analyst who was one of the authors of the A.C.A. assessment, told me, “There is troubling evidence suggesting that studies are still going on, but there is nothing that indicates that Iran is really building a bomb.” He added, “Those who want to drum up support for a bombing attack on Iran sort of aggressively misrepresented the report.”

…The report did note that its on-site camera inspection process of Iran’s civilian nuclear enrichment facilities—mandated under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, to which Iran is a signatory—“continues to verify the non-diversion of declared nuclear material.”

(For some of my recent reporting on Iran, the U.S. and Israeli war-mongers, and this I.A.E.A. report see here, here, and here.)

Still, and as I’ve said repeatedly, I don’t think the military and intelligence communities in the U.S. and Israel are on the whole supportive of such saber rattling. Mier Dagan, the former Israeli intelligence chief who has consistently spoken out against an attack on Iran, again came out yesterday to warn against it. He said an attack on Iran – which would be preemptive and an act of aggression since Iran has broken no rules and presents no threat – would result in a vicious outbreak of regional warfare potentially resulting in massive casualties on many sides.

Those with any particle of sanity will agree with him.

15 thoughts on “Recap: Iran Presents No Threat, Isn’t Building a Bomb, and War Would Mean Reckless Disaster”

  1. "Those with any particle of sanity will agree with him."
    There's the rub. There is no sanity left in Babylon-On-The-Potomac. The lunatics are at the controls of one hellish war machine.

  2. The Zionist controlled Neocons in D.C. are ALL insane warmongers with NO concern for the consequences of their 'preemptive' wars.
    Of course – after WWII we hanged Nazi Germans for having 'waged aggressive warfare' – for doing what the D.C. Zionist-Neocons have been doing.

  3. The Iranians would have to present an imminent threat to the United States (bombers in the air and headed toward Chicago by way of Crawford, for example). Then the United States could take defensive action. Otherwise it would be sheer aggression, as in Iraq — the supreme crime under international law. If a power were able to enforce international law thorugh the judicial process of a presiding judge — well, he'd come, he'd see, and Hllary would hang.

  4. One would think that Mr. Glaser has gone insane, but really it's only the rise of modern liberalism. The thinking goes something like this: More successful countries (US and Israel for example) cheated, and less successful countries (Iran is one example) are victims that are simply reacting to the successful countries (the cheaters.)

    That is the framework. We just need to fit the world into it.

    Iran would never build nuclear weapons unless forced to by the US or Israel. Even if it did build nuclear weapons, then it would only use them in defense. That fits the framework.

    There's this nasty problem, though. Reality keeps getting in the way. So reality needs to be twisted so it fits into the above framework. How could it not fit? It's not like the framework could possibly be wrong?

    So Mr. Glaser's job is to twist reality until it fits into the correct framework.

    Apparently, Iran presents no threat. I guess that means one must ignore the part about bringing back the Mahdi. To make this happen billions of people need to die in order to create the chaos necessary for the return of the Mahdi. The Iranian leadership tells us they want to make this return happen.

    Here is what an Iranian ex-CIA spy (Reza Khalili) had to say about Iranian leaders (Belief and planning):

    1. Israel will be wiped off the map.
    2. America’s days are numbered.
    3. 1/3 of the world population have to die due to nuclear war.
    4. 1/3 must die due to hunger, chaos and havoc.
    5. The 12th Imam will appear and kill the rest of the infidels.
    6. The Islamic flag will be raised on all corners of the planet.
    7. When Iran gets nuclear weapons then millions are going to die.
    8. Iran will use nuclear weapons against Israel and European capitols.

    This kind of thinking must be ignored lest it shatter the liberal framework of how things work.

    There is another framework that one could use: More successful countries had better behavior, and less successful countries had worse behavior. This leads to thinking that is completely opposite to the modern liberal.

    Using the new framework we accept Iran's behavior at face value. It's bad news and likely to lead to a major nuclear war once Iran gets enough nuclear weapons. It's better to stop Iran now while we can no matter the cost because later the cost will be in millions, if not billions, of lives.

    1. This is what the Supreme Leader actually says; from a public speech in Iran on 4th June 2006.

      We have no problem with the world. We are not a threat whatsoever to the world and the world knows it. The Americans, with their shameless propagandas, want to influence world public opinion. However, they haven’t yet managed to do so and will not be able to do so in the future either.

      “Their other issue is [their assertion] that Iran seeks [a] nuclear bomb. It is an irrelevant and wrong statement, it is a sheer lie. We do not need a nuclear bomb. We do not have any objectives or aspirations for which we will need to use a nuclear bomb. We consider using nuclear weapons against Islamic rules. We have announced this openly. We think imposing the costs of building and maintaining nuclear weapons on our nation is unnecessary. Building such weapons and their maintenance are costly. By no means we deem it right to impose these costs on the people. We do not need those weapons. Unlike the Americans who want to rule the world with force, we do not claim to control the world and therefore do not need a nuclear bomb.

  5. There is ZERO indication that the above is anything but Israeli propaganda. The supreme leader of Iran has never said anything indicating that the leadership think it´s possible to hasten the return of the Mahdi. Do Perry and Bachmann think it´s possible to hasten the rapture by nuclear war ? It´s tragic that we may perish due to insanity. Nuclear weapons must be dismantled and Obama is modernising the arsenal !

  6. The U.S is most powerful corrupt government of our time. This Iran threat is purely profit and to stir up the world. 9/11 supposedly was the reason for the now adopted "pre-emption warfare" when really it is flipped. The United States brought down the towers for a motive for the Iraq and Afghanistan, but even more importantly, it gave America the right to re-write there pre-emption warfare doctrine and gave them the right take the offensive even to a hint of a threat. Some top U.S. officials have even called "The New Pearl Harbor" because it to, is just a false flag operation.
    Revolutionary group LOFW

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