Iran Hasn't Decided to Make a Nuke, Says Israeli IDF Chief
Israeli Defense Forces Chief of Staff Benny Gantz isn't that panicked by the alleged imminent mortal threat of Iran, reports Haaretz. Amongst some of the requried song and dance about his readiness to blow them away and their alleged intention to blow away his own nation, there's this:
At his rare public appearances Gantz has taken a cautious approach to the issue - mentioning the military option, whose development and preparation he oversees, while leaving the door open to international negotiations with Iran. His language is far from the dramatic rhetoric of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and is usually free of the Holocaust comparisons of which Israeli politicians are so fond…..
Iran, Gantz says, "is going step by step to the place where it will be able to decide whether to manufacture a nuclear bomb. It hasn't yet decided whether to go the extra mile."
Previous Iran threatblogging from me here and here.
Who is the only prominent national politician who really gets this? Ron Paul, and I wrote a book about him, out soon, Ron Paul's Revolution: The Man and the Movement He Inspired.
Ron Paul on Iranian nukes:
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I'm going step by step to the place where I will be able to decide whether to post a comment. I haven't yet decided whether to go the extra mile.
"and I wrote a book about him"
Well la-dee-da
Aww, come on!
Attack 'em anyways! Barry needs another war to sew up his "Great President" cred.
His body count is pathetic compared to the likes of Lincoln or Roosevelt.
Or even Dickless Cheney's.
He isn't even in Che territory yet.
loks like aresen's confused barry the the muslim terrorist appeaser w netanyahu teh brooklyn joo.
Thanks, Mary. Your insight is always valued.
Are you sure that's rectal? I thought Orrin was a wholly distinct microcephalic txtspkung griefer.
yea he's trippin
Epi tries to be cynical but he just comes off as a douchebag.
There are other trolls in the world besides Mary/rectal/whatever. I don't think reason woudl be so lucky to just have the one. Anyway, I kind of like Orrin. He's concise (if illegible) and doesn't seem to be actively trying to ruin things for everyone else.
OT: back from the Isle of the Palms, SC - gah, I don't want to go back to Michigan!
I assume that's a euphemism for masturbation.
isn't everything?
That's why he's got to pump it up.
How many PBIs can he get into bodybags between now and November 6?
That was in reply to Hugh's remark about Barry's kill score.
Damn threaded comments.
You don't just get a Nobel Peace Prize. You've got to earn it.
By killing off the competition. That's where Gandhi erred.
Israeli Defense Forces Chief of Staff Benny Gantz
Seriously? Benny Gantz? Like anything you want, Benny Gantz? Is his nickname "The Shiv", "The Bulldog", "The Rooster"?
The only foreign aid Ron Paul supports is nukes to Iran, for great justice.
Wrong. Try again. This time, with facts.
Very interesting. I thought Iran had made a very conscious decision to pursue a nuclear program that could/would generate bomb-grade uranium, rather than another program, that they wouldn't have suffered sanctions for and would have actually gotten aid for, that would not produce bomb-grade uranium.
I could be wrong about that. But if so, then I would say that Iran has long been committed to making a bomb.
Still, I wonder two things:
(1) What does Benny know that I don't? I'm sure its a lot.
(2) What are the politics of Benny saying this now? Are they just gaming the Iranians into dropping their guard? Are they gaming the international communitay into thinking maybe the Jooooos aren't all bad?
This is the second big-time Israeli defense official to say the same in the last couple of months.
Dagan is the other.
Perhaps they just want to appear to be keeping the option of making a bomb open so that they can agree to stop it at the perfect moment.
There is no evidence that they have produced bomb grade uranium
The highest level they have produced is 20% and that is for a research reactor that the US gave them. A research reactor that did use bomb grade 93% uranium but the Iranians converted to use non bomb grade 20% uranium in the 1980's
None of this of course matters to Obama, Romney, or the other saber-rattlers in Congress. They all think Israel is too stupid to know what goes on in its own back yard when in reality they probably know far more than we ever would when it comes to gauging the true intentions of its neighbors.