By Matthew Rothschild, The Progressive
Hold on a second here.
The risk of Bush attacking Iran is not yet over.
When the National Intelligence Estimate on Iran came out earlier this week, a lot of people jumped to the conclusion that Cheney and the hardliners have lost, and so we can all breathe a sigh of relief.
Well, I’m not exhaling at the moment.
Because I still believe Bush and Cheney are going to do the deed.
First, let’s examine what Bush said at his Tuesday press conference:
“Iran was dangerous, Iran is dangerous, and Iran will be dangerous if they have the knowledge necessary to make a nuclear weapon.”
Note well that he didn’t say Iran will be dangerous when it acquires such a weapon, but prior to that, when it acquires the knowledge to make one. That’s a big difference, and it shortens the timetable laid out in the NIE, which doubted Iran would have such a weapon until 2015.
Who knows when Iran will have the “knowledge to make” one? Maybe it has that knowledge already and lacks only the technical sophistication.
Bush’s new definition allows him to denounce Iran at almost any time on the nuclear issue.