Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu got more than 16 minutes of saber-rattling, fear mongering and war mongering against Iran last night on On The Record. Host Greta Van Susteren didn’t come right out and advocate for war (the way many of her Fox News colleagues do) but she did very little to challenge Netanyahu’s position.
Netanyahu told Van Susteren he did not think war is inevitable – but only if we threaten Iran enough. “If they actually believe that they’re going to face the military option, you probably won’t need the military option,” he said. He made it clear he didn’t think the Obama administration had threatened credibly enough.
But he also slammed “containment” as a “dubious proposition.”
For a little extra bombing-inducement, he said, “You’re worried about the price of oil today?” Just think what would happen if Iran develops a nuclear bomb. He seemed to take it as a given that it would be used against us. “Everybody talks about the costs of taking action to stop Iran, I think it’s important to start talking about the cost of not acting to stop Iran,” he said.
Van Susteren didn’t challenge him. Instead, she wondered if other nations had the same “sense of seriousness” that he has or if other countries think “we can still talk our way out of it.”
“So far, sanctions haven’t worked,” Netanyahu said.
In a nod to balance, Van Susteren commented, “The more we talk and have diplomacy, the more’s the chance for them” to develop the bomb. “Diplomacy does have its drawback.” Then she pointed out that the intelligence was wrong about WMD’s in Iraq, “I’m trying to balance the two.”
Oh, no this is not like Iraq, Netanyahu insisted. “We didn’t know (in Iraq)… in the case of Iran, there is absolutely no (doubt).”
Of course, that’s not what was said in the run up to the Iraq war. If you ask me, this is just like it.
No, Bibi — I think you mean YOU didn’t know in the case of Iraq.
Anybody who listened to Hans Blix – meaning, anybody sane — knew there were no WMDs in Iraq:
http://berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2004/03/18_blix.shtml
.