U.S. Blueprint for Iran Strike

Anonymously contributed:

From Global Security Newswire

Mullen Affirms U.S. Blueprint for Iran Strike
Monday, Aug. 2, 2010

The United States has a blueprint in place for military action aimed at preventing Iran from building nuclear weapons, the chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff said yesterday (see GSN, July 30).

“Military options have been on the table and remain on the table. It’s one of the options that [U.S. President Barack Obama] has,” the Jerusalem Post quoted Adm. Michael Mullen as saying. “I hope we don’t get to that, but it’s an important option, and it’s one that’s well understood" (Yaakov Katz, Jerusalem Post, Aug. 2).

Pressed on NBC's "Meet the Press" to say whether the Defense Department possessed a plan for use of force against Iran, Mullen said "we do."

Mullen's direct reference to military action was unusual for the Obama administration, which has more typically warned that "all options are on the table," the London Guardian reported (Ed Pilkington, London Guardian, Aug. 1).

Still, Mullen said he was "extremely concerned" that a strike on Iran might produce "unintended consequences that are difficult to predict in what is an incredibly unstable part of the world," Agence France-Presse reported.

He added, though, that Washington must not allow the emergence of a nuclear-armed Iran.


http://gsn.nti.org/gsn/nw_20100802_7942.php