We Must Bomb Iran, Says US Republican Guru
The Telegraph
"NEW YORK - A senior foreign policy adviser to the Republican frontrunner Rudy Giuliani has urged that Iran be bombed using cruise missiles and “bunker busters” to set back Teheran’s nuclear programme by at least five years.
The tough message at a time of crisis between the United States and Iraq was delivered by Norman Podhoretz, one of the founders of neoconservatism, who has also imparted his stark advice personally to a receptive President George W. Bush.
“None of the alternatives to military action - negotiations, sanctions, provoking an internal insurrection - can possibly work,” said Mr Podhoretz.
“They’re all ways of evading the terrible choice we have to make which is to either let them get the bomb or to bomb them.”
In an interview with The Daily Telegraph, Mr Podhoretz said he was certain that bombing raids could be successful. “People I’ve talked to have no doubt we could set it back five or 10 years. There are those who believe we can get the underground facilities as well with these highly sophisticated bunker-busting munitions.”.....
He is the most eminent of a clutch of uncompromisingly hawkish aides assembled by Mr Giuliani. They include Daniel Pipes, who opposes a Palestinian state and believes America should “inspire fear, not affection”, and Michael Rubin, a former Pentagon official who has argued that Condoleezza Rice’s diplomacy is “dangerous” and signals American “weakness” to Teheran......
Mr Podhoretz’s thesis is that the war on terror is in fact World War Four and that the 42-year-long Cold War should be more properly described as World War Three.
Awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, America’s highest honour, by President George W. Bush in 2004, Mr Podhoretz later sought a rare one-on-on audience with the US commander-in-chief. They met in New York’s Waldorf Astoria hotel in the spring.
The author of the recent World War IV: the Long Struggle Against Islamofacsism spent about 35 minutes outlining his case for air strikes against Iran as Mr Bush’s then chief adviser Karl Rove took notes. “Whether I had any effect on him I truly don’t know but I sure tried my best to persuade him,” he said. “He was very cordial. He was warm. He listened. He occasionally asked a question as I made the case but he was truly poker faced.”
Mr Podhoretz left the meeting unshaken in his belief that Mr Bush would attack Iran before he leaves office. “The spirit of the questions was not to try to refute or contradict what I was saying. I didn’t get any negative vibes.”.....
“I would say it would take five minutes. You’d wake up one morning and the strikes would have been ordered and carried out during the night. All the president has to do is say go.”"
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