Once again, George W. Bush is trying to lie us into an illegal, immoral war against a nation that has no belligerent ambitions. Iran has never “declared they want to have a nuclear weapon to destroy people” and, in fact, “[t]he Iranian leaders have consistently condemned nuclear weapons as inhumane and denounced them and said that they don’t want them and it would be illegal in Islamic law to use them.” (from Informed Comment, which I highly recommend you read for its depth and incisive analysis of the Iranian position).
We’d better start asking ourselves what is wrong with a man who will repeatedly, nay chronically lie in order to take the US to war for highly questionable reasons. There appears to be something pathological about our Emperor.
Richard Jehn / The Rag Blog
Bush Vows to Prevent Iran From Acquiring Nuclear Arms
By William Branigin, Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, March 20, 2008; 12:46 PM
President Says Tehran Wants to ‘Destroy People;’ Cannot Be Trusted to Enrich Uranium
President Bush said the Iranian government has “declared they want to have a nuclear weapon to destroy people” and vowed that the United States would be “firm” in preventing Tehran’s acquisition of such arms.
In interviews yesterday to mark the Iranian new year, Bush said Iran has a right to build civilian nuclear power plants but that the government cannot be trusted to enrich uranium, according to White House transcripts released today. Different types of enriched uranium can be used as fuel for nuclear reactors or as fissile material for atomic bombs.
“The Iranians should have a civilian nuclear power program. It’s in their right to have it,” Bush told Radio Farda, a U.S.-funded radio station that broadcasts to Iran in Farsi, the Iranian language.
“The problem is the government cannot be trusted to enrich uranium because one, they’ve hidden programs in the past and they may be hiding one now, who knows; and secondly, they’ve declared they want to have a nuclear weapon to destroy people — some in the Middle East,” Bush said. “And that’s unacceptable to the United States, and it’s unacceptable to the world.”
Washington has long suspected that Iran wants to use its civilian nuclear power program as cover for an effort to build nuclear weapons. But the Iranian government has not publicly declared a desire to obtain such weapons. In fact, Iranian leaders have said the opposite, repeatedly insisting that they do not want nuclear arms and asserting that their nuclear program is intended only to generate electricity.
Joseph Cirincione, president of the Ploughshares Fund, a global security foundation specializing in nuclear policy, called Bush’s statement “uninformed” and “troubling.”
“Iran has never said it wanted a nuclear weapon for any reason,” he said. “It’s just not true.”
Read all of it here.
