January 24, 2012 • 3:16AM An article published in Lebanon’s The Daily Star, Bruce Riedel, who has advised four U.S. Presidents on the Middle East and South Asia and is now a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington, said the danger of war against Iran is growing. He said “Iran is rattling its sabers, the Republican Presidential candidates and others are rattling theirs. But even if Tehran gets the bomb, Israel will have overwhelming military superiority over Iran, a fact that should not be lost in all the heated rhetoric.”
Riedel, while he was advising President Obama on Afghanistan had said earlier the greatest threats to America’s security are the British terrorists who need no visa to come over to the United States. He is echoing the voices of U.S. military officers and some others, who are concerned about the dangers that a war with Iran poses. The Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey was in Israel recently where he sent a clear message: “Don’t attack Iran, and let the tougher sanctions take hold.” “This is getting very dangerous,” said Jon Alterman, a former State Department official who runs the Middle East Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, as quoted in NPR radio on Jan. 19. “All the senior people I know in the U.S. government are starting to lose sleep over where this all might go.” Riedel cited former head of Israel’s Mossad, Meir Dagan, saying, “Iran will not get the bomb until at least 2015. In contrast, Israel has had nuclear weapons since the late 1960s and has jealously guarded its monopoly on them in the region.” Moreover, Israel will continue to enjoy the support of the world’s only superpower for the foreseeable future. Iran, in contrast, has no major power providing it with financial help. Its arms relationships with Russia and China have been severed by Security Council Resolution 1929, Riedel said. Riedel concluded saying: “So, don’t let the hot air from Tehran or the Republican debates confuse the reality on the ground. Iran is a dangerous country but it is not an existential threat to either Israel or America.” -- Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups. For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum * Visit our other community at http://www.PoliticalForum.com/ * It's active and moderated. Register and vote in our polls. * Read the latest breaking news, and more.
