Official says U.S. may mull pre-emptive Iran strike

[ECH1969]

The United States or other countries will one day be forced to consider pre-emptive action if Iran and North Korea continue to seek nuclear weapons, a senior U.S. government official said on Tuesday.

The United States and its allies have accused Iran of pursuing nuclear weapons under the guise of a civilian energy program and are pushing for United Nations' sanctions. Tehran denies the accusation.

If North Korea refused to renounce its nuclear program and Iran developed a nuclear weapons capability, it would lead other countries in their regions to seek nuclear weapons, said the U.S. official, speaking on condition he was not identified.

"We, the United States, and others who might be threatened by these developments will have to look at how to respond and inevitably I think people will have to look at the question of pre-emption," the official told reporters.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20061115/pl_nm/nuclear_iran_usa_dc

[htuttle]

1. "Anonymous Senior Government Official Threatens War"

You can bet this was an 'official' off-the-record statement -- could have been Rove for all we know.

Why aren't they willing to take ownership of their ridiculous bluster?

[leftchick]

2. so who said it?

Bolton would be my guess...

<snip>

If North Korea refused to renounce its nuclear program and Iran developed a nuclear weapons capability, it would lead other countries in their regions to seek nuclear weapons, said the U.S. official, speaking on condition he was not identified.

[kenny blankenship]

3. On behalf of the 150,000 US soldiers who would die in Iraq

if the United States attacked Iran, and on behalf of their families, I ask that you can that nonsense, Mr. Cheney.

[HereSince1628]

4. Slow news day? The US has "mulled" invading lots of folks

[wakeme2008]

5. N Korea has bomb no OIL,,, Iran does not have bomb but LOTS of OIL

let me guest which country Cheney will attack.. :grr:

[lumpy]

6. I'm sure No. Korea and Iran will be happy to hear of

our future plans for war. As though they didn't already know. This bit of news is for US public consumption, you know, keep repeating endlessly and they will accept the inevitable. Thank you for the information, mr. senior US official propagandist, we'll gird our loins and prepare for unrelenting war.

[aquart]

7. We can barely scrape together 2200 Marines for Iraq.

We are LOSING TWO WARS in the Middle East.

But the delusional White House thinks we can invade Iran AND North Korea?

Somebody take away their video games.

[Sweet Freedom]

8. Pre-emptive action

Well, I can see why. The last time we launched a pre-emptive action it was so successful. :eyes:

[Megahurtz]

9. That would be stupid. n/t

[Tempest]

10. What they're really saying is this...

"We have no plans to pre-emptively attack a country that can destroy our allies in the Middle East and force us out of the area and in control of the Islamic fundamentalists. What we plan on doing is rattling our sabres and when Iran's nuclear facilities go on-line, we'll say 'but we tried to get them to stop' thus enabling us to say it wasn't our fault."