Israel Sought U.S. Nod to Bomb Iran Nukes -Jonathan SteeleIsrael gave serious thought this spring to launching a military strike on Iran's nuclear sites but was told by President Bush that he would not support it and did not expect to revise that view for the rest of his presidency, senior European diplomatic sources have told the Guardian.
(Guardian-UK)
3 comments:
Despite Netanyahu's kiss up to W. Bush, I have maintained, with many examples, that Bush has not been a friend of Israel for a very long time. Only narrow minded individuals like Joe Lieberman (and conceivably Netanyahu), who think as long as Arabs are being fought by our troops(Iraqi ones) it is good, even though it empowered Iran and brought Al-Qaeda to Iraq, could be happy with the Bush/Cheney/Rice record in the MidEast. By the way, in an otherwise middling debate, I thought when Obama pointed out to McCain that the Iraq war empowered Iran and brought Al-Qaeda to Iraq was a high point in truthfulness and clarity in these complicated times.
I don't know Netanyau well enough to say for sure, but many Israeli privately told Bush & Company that going after Iran was smarter than going after Iraq. Ariel Sharon, the former Prime Minister, was apparently one of them. I don't think i blogged this info, but i know i read of Sharon's private posture with Bush a few times...
Invading Iran would have been difficult. The world supported us in Iraq because Hussein was not loved by anyone, they knew many of his populace would turn against him or at worst be not supportive of him, and they believed America's misinformation about WMD. Except for disliking them, none of this was true at the time for Iran on the world stage. We have already set the stage for what Russia did in Georgia with our invasion of Iraq. Had we invaded Iran, it wold have set the stage for a SuperPower grabfest in the MidEast that could have escalated beyond all control as each side feared the other was making a play for controlling the oil supply and delivery channels. We should have just stuck to completing the job in Afghanistan and allowed Iraq to reign in Iran.
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