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Posted By Joshua Keating
Tuesday, August 17, 2010 - 12:49 PM
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The clock is ticking, according to the former U.N. ambassador:
Iran is to bring online its first nuclear power reactor, built with Russia's help, on August 21, when a shipment of nuclear fuel will be loaded into the plant's core.
At that point, John Bolton warned Monday, it will be too late for Israel to launch a military strike against the facility because any attack would spread radiation and affect Iranian civilians.
"Once that uranium, once those fuel rods are very close to the reactor, certainly once they're in the reactor, attacking it means a release of radiation, no question about it," Bolton told Fox Business Network.
"So if Israel is going to do anything against Bushehr it has to move in the next eight days."
Before you start stocking up on canned goods, it's worth noting that according to Bolton, right now is always the best time to attack Iran. In July 2009, he said that Israel would likely attack by the end of last year. In June 2008, he said it would have be before the end of the Bush administration. Way back in 2007, he was saying that "time is limited."
Bolton doesn't actually think that Israel will attack Iran this week, and believes that they have "lost this opportunity," but something tells me this isn't the last time that Bolton will give the Israelis an extension on their deadline.
Update: Just a few hours after the Fox interview, Bolton told Israeli Radio that Israel only has three days left to attack Iran. That was a fast five days!
...
Bolton, one of the architects of the Iraq war, should be taken over to Iraq and dropped off in Anbar province with just the clothes on his back and told to he has to make it back to Baghdad without any US assistance. He will have to depend on the Iraqi people for his survival.
If he makes it back he will be told any position or job he holds has been eliminated due to 'funding' and his health insurance has been discontinued.
He should have 'I am a loser' tattoed on his upper lip and that ridiculous mustache done away with.
Then, if Israel stupidly does bomb Iran, he should be taken over to Israel and dropped into the radioactive cloud settling over Tel Aviv with just the clothes on his back and told he must live there forever just breathing the air.
Sophistication of FP online readers/commenters
I am surprised at the puerile ad hominem comments here. It appears readers here are no more thoughtful than those who comment on cnn.com or foxnews.com.
The issue is serious and whether you like Bolton or not, for whatever reason, his comments are mostly accurate. Other Arab nations have publicly stated they do not want Iran with a nuclear weapon and they want the US or Israel to stop them. I doubt Obama has the courage to do it and Israel's capability at that distance is limited though reports have indicated Saudi Arabia has secretly agreed to open its airspace for Israeli bombers to make the mission possible. If no one acts, Obama will not be remembered as the President who brought us Obamacare, but the President who let Iran become a nuclear power. If Iran has a nuclear weapon, other countries in the Middle East will have to have one to balance the power. So much for his goal of a nuclear weapon-free world. Some times you have to fight for peace, not just talk about it.
Love to see my name in print!
Lividiot, your hysterical blindness and smearing of anyone daring to criticize is ridiculously laughable.
Who is talking about nuking Israel? No one but you.
Did you actually read my post? No? To bad. A recap.
" if Israel stupidly does bomb Iran, he should be taken over to Israel and dropped into the radioactive cloud settling over Tel Aviv with just the clothes on his back and told he must live there forever just breathing the air.
Your rhetorical hasbara strategies fail and will continue to fail. We are not Rachel Corries that you can bulldoze over and kill with insults and personal attacks.
Resorting to character assassination, personal attacks, or unwarranted accusations is always the strategy of cheesy Israeli apologists.
As for wanting to kill Palestiniains/Arabs? Don't have to, Israel does that everyday.
Livity, always the idiot, but thanks for the shoutout.
But his reasoning is sound.
He said over a year ago a nuclear Iran would be catastrophic for the middle east. It could easily uses its weapons to jack off the global price of oil. It could close the Strait of Hormuz and there wouldn't be a lot the US or any nation could do outside of capitulating to Iran's demands. The Arab nations would immediately go nuclear (they would have every right to) further causing instability in the ME and disrupting the US defense umbrella.
Of course the leftists secretly oppose US foreign policy in the ME and posit Iran as a passive victim. America is so evil that Iran deserves nuclear weapons to create a counter-balance.
But this is suicidal because a nuclear Iran would simply punish the USA and not create balance.
The costs of an attack on Iran would be devastating, but not disarming Iran would be bad for oil-long term and bad for Israel.
Israel's defense policy has always been about security. It could not accept a state like Iran with nukes.
It won't.
Avner, you keep peddling your crap!
Let's try and get America to fight another war for Israel just like Iraq. Iran has 70 million people, Israel isn't going to start anything on their own. Israel is going to use the lobby to and get the Americans to do it for them.
The Strait of Hormuz would be closed after any attack, forget nuclear.
Your just another Israel Lobby Stooge just like Bolton. Probably being paid.
Nah, Neither Vilks or Avner are swift enough to get paid. UNLESS they are actually al qeada operatives whose mission is to make those who support ultra right wing Israeli political causes look so sociopathic and despicable that they smear by association anyone who would support such causes., Then, possibly.
Zion (US) was always meant to help and befriend Israel. Hopefully cooler heads prevail here. Wars can be averted so easily.
Iran imports 40% of its refined gasoline.
.
Blocking the straits of Hormuz would immediately cut off that supply to a weak regime in Tehran that already fended off riots after trying to raise taxes on its business class by 40%.
.
Ad hominem attacks only work for Islamists sock puppets and the mob mentality of the Arab world. But then again, that's who the leftists are pandering to - their Iranian benefactors.
Everyone is attacking Bolton as an ambassador but not his philosophy - which unfortunately is not extremist in least. Nobel Peace Prize winner Barack Obama and his appointed military advisors all concur a nuclear Iran is unacceptable.
Tough sell that this war would be over Israel. We never bombed Gaza, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Jordan, Egypt, the West Bank, Iraq, Pakistan, or any country that was at war with Israel.
In fact, US condemned Israel for bombing Iraq. Just as it condemned Israel for bombing PLO headquarters in Africa. Bush 2, the "neo-con" demanded Israel to halt Operation Defensive Shield.
The illusion that we have fought a single war for Israel continues to be peddled like an indisputable fact, and yet no convincing argument has been provided.
If Israel were Saudi Arabia we would have bombed Iran many years ago.
It could easily uses its weapons to jack off the global price of oil. It could close the Strait of Hormuz and there wouldn't be a lot the US or any nation could do outside of capitulating to Iran's demands. The Arab nations would immediately go nuclear (they would have every right to) further causing instability in the ME and disrupting the US defense umbrella.
Of course the leftists secretly oppose US foreign policy in the ME and posit Iran as a passive victim. America is so evil that Iran deserves nuclear weapons to create a counter-balance.
But this is suicidal because a nuclear Iran would simply punish the USA and not create balance.
it could easily uses its weapons to jack off the global price of oil. It could close the Strait of Hormuz and there wouldn't be a lot the US or any nation could do outside of capitulating to Iran's demands. The Arab nations would immediately go nuclear (they would have every right to) further causing instability in the ME and disrupting the US defense umbrella.
Of course the leftists secretly oppose US foreign policy in the ME and posit Iran as a passive victim. America is so evil that Iran deserves nuclear weapons to create a counter-balance.
But this is suicidal because a nuclear Iran would simply punish the USA and not create http://www.ghdhairukmart.net/ghduk/
John Bolton's Changing Israeli Deadline to Bomb Iran
Why is that the worst, most blood thirsty, most inaccurate and worst American foreign policy representatives live on and continue to sell a line that not even the country that it concerns believe them.
John Balton was the worst American UN representative for some time, vain, arrogant, belligerent he made more enemies around the world along with the other paranoids Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney. Why don't these uninformed hate mongers just go away. No one was interested in what they had to say when they were in power let alone when out of power.
A Lot can be said against President Obama but how many American President's were left with America in the state that President Obama inherited. Virtually bankrupt morally and financially. Losing two avoidable wars Afghanistan (part 2) and Iraq. Destabilized the entire area including Pakistan, and the Middle East. And continuing to spend trillions of dollars for two lost wars. John Balton don't go away mad just go away.
John Bolton might be wrong about the date but he is probably
right about the situation, he is a very seriuos man and he should be listened to. He probably doesnt have the intelligence that some countries have so that is why the change of dates but he is giving his assumptions based on reality and he knows the international arena a lot better tham most foreign policy anti Israel anti AMerican bloggers.
You guys just dont get it, Iran with Nukes is not about Israel, we are the small devill America is the great satan you idiots. Iran is a world risk not an Israeli local problem yes we might be the first ones on the list maybe not even first because we are stronger than the sunni neighboors.
Iran wants to dominate the region and be a global power and the mulahs might not be as crazy as they talk, but when you are sitting on your couch and blabbering about Israel you look like fools. Dont cry when gas is 10 bucks a gallon because 'iran feels ballzy and they have nukes, and dont cry if one of your kids gets killed in a terror attack via Iran. Iran is developing long range missiles and are doing good, they can reach Europe and eventually they will be able to reach America, you might think it is far from you and does not concern you but it sure does.
Stop making it about Israel it is about the world, Iran is the number one state sponsor of terror in the world actively killing Americans in Iraq and Afghanistan, holding the world hostage to the threat of terror . Arming all terrorists who will serve their purpose this is not an organization this is a country that kills innocent civilians to serve their fanatic ideology.
They are very smart shrewed and dangerous dont let them fool you their intensions are clear they want nukes and they don't want a stable middle east because it will threaten the revolution. It will be the end of it if there is stability and the mullahs will not let that happen
Never met a country he didn't like. Like to bomb that is, except Israel.
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