The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said in an interview aired Sunday that the administration has told Israel it’s “not prudent at this point to decide to attack Iran.”
But he also admitted that the U.S. doesn’t see Tehran as a threat in the same light as Tel Aviv does.
“I mean, that’s been our counsel to our allies, the Israelis, well known and well documented,” Gen. Martin Dempsey said on CNN’s “Fareed Zakaria GPS” of Washington’s advice to withhold military action. “And we also know or believe we know that the Iranian regime has not decided that they will embark on the capability — or the effort to weaponize their nuclear capability.”
This differs from Israel’s assessment as Tel Aviv prepares for possible action to keep Iran from getting the bomb.
“Iran is not only building a bomb and threatening to destroy our people, the government of Iran today is the headquarters of terrorism, of hatred and of war, and will not spare any effort to attempt to kill and to destroy,” Israeli President Shimon Peres said last week. “The Iranian government does not have a future because it does not promise a future. We shall meet the Iranian dangers as it should be done – with the maximum effort to make the region secure and peaceful.”
Dempsey said the possibility of a retaliatory strike by Tehran is “the question with which we all wrestle.”
“We are of the opinion that the Iranian regime is a rational actor,” the chairman said. “And it’s for that reason, I think, that we think the current path [of sanctions and diplomacy] we’re on is the most prudent path at this point.”
The White House sent National Security Adviser Tom Donilon to Israel on Saturday to engage in “consultations” through Monday “with senior Israeli officials about a range of issues, including Iran, Syria, and other regional security issues.”
“National Security Advisor Donilon’s travel is the latest in a series of regular, high-level consultations between the United States and Israel, consistent with our strong bilateral partnership, and part of our unshakeable commitment to Israel’s security,” the White House said in a vague statement.
Iran recently sent a brief letter to European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton expressing willingness to engage in new talks with the permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany (P5+1) and bring “new initiatives” — on which they didn’t elaborate — to the table.
“If Iran chooses a path of honoring its international obligations and working with the international community to remove the world’s concerns about its development of a nuclear weapons program, then there is an opportunity for Iran to work its way out of the corner here — the corner that its behavior has led them into,” White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters on Thursday.
The danger is that Iran could just be stalling for time.
The Associated Press reported yesterday that “Iran is poised to greatly expand uranium enrichment at a fortified underground bunker to a point that would boost how quickly it could make nuclear warheads,” according to anonymous senior diplomats.
Dempsey said Washington has had a “very candid collaborative conversation” with Israel about U.S. concerns.
“I also understand that Israel has national interests that are unique to them,” the general said. “And, of course, they consider Iran to be an existential threat in a way that we have not concluded that Iran is an existential threat. So I wouldn’t suggest, sitting here today, that we’ve persuaded them that our view is the correct view and that they are acting in an ill-advised fashion.”
“If you were a betting man, would you bet that Israel won’t strike?” Zakaria asked.
“Well, fortunately, I’m not a betting man,” Dempsey responded.
Every day I understand better and better how the Holocaust happened.
A lot of people are defending their careers instead of defending honor and truth.
It is a truly sad show to watch.
This sentence is psychotic.
I will not forget this.
I am saving the page.
“We will pay no attention to what they say, or what they do.”
ummkay. Haven’t we seen this before? Didn’t Hitler do exactly what he wrote that he wanted to do? Hasn’t Hamas done exactly what they said they would do? The Iranian regime is acting consistently with its advertising. From here, it looks absolutely foolish to fail to take them seriously.
IF Iran is a rational actor THEN more certainly than ever they ARE building nuclear weapons, as there is no other reason for all of this activity.
Dempsey comes across as an idiot or a liar, or at least a little toady given a script and pushed in front of the cameras. None of these is anything I want to see in a command officer.
Iran may well be “acting rationally” in the sense that her perceptions of fact are producing rational responses to them. Her perceptions of fact are probably wrong, and we probably do not know what they are. If I see a little kitten approaching, perceive her as a crazed, charging bull and shoot her with an elephant gun, that might be rational behavior based on my perceptions. However, since my perceptions are wrong my reaction would deemed irrational by those who perceive her correctly.
When it is said that Iran is “acting rationally,” it would be well to ask (a) on what perceptions Iran bases her “rational” actions and (b) on what definition of “acting rationally” the speaker bases his statement.
I couldn’t get past the picture. What was Bridget writing about?
Has he never heard of the Mahdi? Another military talking head, spouting bullshit he does not believe. This is another case of Obumma protection
of the muslims. I would believe that Obumma would attack Israel to protect
Iran.
Neville Chamberlain all over again…history definitely repeats itself.
Starting with Colin Powell…US’s military brass is more and more liberal/leftist leaning socialists.
Destruction of one of the Worlds’s sharpest, fightingest, bravest and conservative military the world has ever known…is quickly becoming a milktoast to UN decisions and representatives.
What the military needs are Eisenhower, Curtiss LeMay, Patton…this current crop of military commanders will ruin america’s first line of defence…a strong military presence such that NO country would dare question America’s resolve.
Current administration officials would hand over to every foreign combatant, para-military organization, drug-dealing cartel, corrupt foreign military and their commanders as well as avowed haters of america EVERY secret weapon in research, in development and currently funded production to all these and other enemies of the USA. (Clinton did! Remember Mr. Long? Missile technology to China?)
Government largesse doesn’t stop at America’s doorstep…it extends to aiding and abetting every avowed enemy of America by WE The Elite People of culture of corruption in Washington DC.
Why do We The People put our treasured sons and daughters in harms way, only to return home with infirmities to be treated by a Veterans Hospital network worse than Cuba’s? WHY??? Anybody been to a Veterans Hospital lately? Five months to get one appointment to see a doctor. File all paperwork, and lazy employees lose it only to repeat the eligibility process all over again (and they’ll NEVER return a phone call). An emergency appointement takes five hours for a simple registration, plus sitting in an uncomfortable chair, in a crowded room with 50 other veterans awaiting their emergency appointments. WHY? WHY, Go to serve Our Nation when Our Nation doesn’t serve We The People???WHY??? See a specialist? Any Veterans hospital???The hospital staff will laugh in that veterans face.
This is the face of current crop of America’s military brass in culture of corruption’s Washington DC…GREED AND POWER. That’s ALL!!!!
Socialism is all around us, a second Obama term in office will collapse everything America. Vote massively for massive fraud is all around us. God Bless America. Amen!
The Obama administration is either willfully ignorant or complicit in Iran’s quest to achieve a nuclear weapon. He and his sycophants are to be ignored, and the obvious course Iran is on must be forcibly stopped. Because Obama – Washington in general – is untethered from reality, military interdiction by Israel is the world’s only hope of stopping Iran’s crazed mullahs from getting their hands on the deadliest weapon known to mankind.
Israel knows what it must do, and I pray they do it with a vengeance.
There are so many different layers and themes to this issue that a statement like the General’s can be taken as naive, or simply incomplete. He may be speaking from a place of not understanding, but he may also just be answering questions in as brief and concise a manner as he can get away with.
There are 3 possibilities here, as I see it:
1. Iran isn’t really making a bomb, and all of the paranoia about it is overblown and overstated. Probably not the case, but certainly within the realm of possibility.
2. Iran is building a bomb, and plans, once they have a decent arsenal of them, to obliterate Israel. Possible, perhaps even probable; irrational and not very smart, as Israel has bombs also, and could devastate Iran and much of the rest of the world, if it wished; the so-called Samson Option, whether Hersh’s book was accurate or not.
3. Iran is building a bomb, but doesn’t plan to use it against Israel at the first opportunity. Nuclear capability makes a regional power, like Iran, much more of a player. *All* regional security questions would have to at least have reference to them, and I expect they imagine they could rehabilitate themselves after a probationary period, the way India and Pakistan have. What most people don’t understand, with regards to nuclear weapons, is the instinctive 3rd-world me-too aspect of this; the leaders of essentially every country in the world that doesn’t have nuclear weapons, somewhere in the back of their minds, yearn to be a nuclear power, because of the respect their nation (and they individually) would get as a result. Iran is a country that imagines itself the cradle of civilization, etc., with of course evil whites somehow stealing their nation’s greatness…regardless of whether they use the bomb on Israel or anyone else, the whole country will essentially be puffed up with pride because they’d finally achieved this accomplishment, and were on a par (trust me they’ll think, and probably even say this) with the United States. As a good example of this happening elsewhere, when India developed the bomb and tested it, there were editorials in India essentially linking the explosion of the bomb to events in the Bhagivad Ghita (if I remember correctly) which in their eyes were the earliest nuclear explosions. So, you see, India invented the bomb, and *Westerners* stole the idea from them…and then tried to keep them from retaking what was rightly theirs…
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t believe Iran should have the bomb. I’m not entirely certain I agree with the general’s statement that Iran’s a “rational” country, in the first place, and I am not in favor of taking chances with this sort of thing.
David, you forgot one other important little tidbit. The Imam in the well that will come out and reign over a world of peace and prosperity till the end of time and if the Iranians can raise enough cane he will rise early. A nuclear war would certainly be enough to raise him from his well and of course, the Shiites would be his favored people.
I like to think your #3 is the case, that Iran would not immediately use its first one or two or ten nuclear bombs to attack Israel and/or Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and the US Fifth fleet, or the US via shipping container.
HOWEVER, in strategic game theory, you have to multiply the probability of an event by the cost should it occur. The cost of any of these is high, highest of all to the Israelis, who must be expected to act accordingly.
I presume (and hope, and pray) that Israel actually does have the power to effectively wipe out the Iranian nation. They might well attempt to do so on a second strike, if Iran should indeed attack first. I do not think Israel would attempt it as a first strike, even if they have the capability.
However, there is a somewhat stronger chance that Iran’s plan is a modified #2, that after they have three or four bombs (and some confidence that they work), they would hand one (or more) over to Hizboolah with instructions to use it on Israel (or other targets) ASAP, leaving Iran with plausible deniability.
This is either a gentleman deliberately putting forward a “line” (as a deception, for some tactical or strategic purpose), or an arm-chair yardbird who is a clear and present danger to the security of his Country.
There is also a third possibility, that the Commander in Chief gave him a direct order to put it that way.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hojjatieh
WE could ‘contain’ the USSR’s nuclear arsenal because the Kremlin knew that the US could easily destroy the USSR if they attacked us with nuclear weapons.
On the other hand, Israel can only hurt Iran, it cannot wipe Iran out. Since various Iranian figures have made clear that it might be worthwhile to accept severe damage from an Israeli response to a nuclear attack as the price for completely destroying Israel…
How can Iran strike Israel with nuclear weapons and not destroy Arabs (Palestinians) as well? I don’t trust Iran and believe they should be stopped short of starting a shooting war. I doubt they have a death wish.
To the Iranian leadership, bringing the Mahdi is rational.
And if the US “leadership” thinks the US is safe, why would Iran strike only at the “Small Satan” and not the “Great Satan”? Or is Obama planning to surrender once Iran has the bomb?
The most charitable picture of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs here is he is an ostrich with his head in the sand.
Or maybe they are just following the orders of their Appeaser-In-Chief, may he be voted out very soon.
I think the guy is an idiot parroting his precedents line.
However, I also see how the military may be turning inward against the American citizen.
Houston, we have a problem.