Nukes: War Policy USA: Iran closer to being target, says General

Associated Press, using a map of known nuclear s+ts in Iran, via Yahoo!News, reports:

A former CIA director and Airforce General says military action against Iran now seems more likely because no matter what the U.S. does diplomatically, Tehran keeps pushing ahead with its suspected nuclear program.

Michael Hayden, a CIA chief under President George W. Bush, says that during his tenure a strike was "way down the list" of options. But he tells CNN's "State of the Union" that such action now "seems inexorable."

He predicts Iran will build its program to the point where it's just below having an actual weapon. Hayden says that would be as destabilizing to the region as the real thing.

U.S. officials have said military action remains an option if sanctions fail to deter Iran.  Iran says its nuclear work is for peaceful purposes such as power generation.

As USA Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton tries to gather a new alliance against Iran's nuclear ambitions, a moment of déja vu seems to call Americans back to the period when neiboring Iraq under dictator genocidist Saddam Hussein was denying admission to his country's nuclear factories, refusing monitors of the International Atomic Energy Agency (a UN affiliated agency)...who also had elaborate maps of nuclear and chemical weapons of mass destruction (WMDs).

But the statement by the former Airforce General and CIA Director constitutes the first time anyone so h+ in rank, civilian or military, has moved the discussion into its near ultimate stage:  Sanctions have failed, now is the time to face up to the possible need shortly for effective military pre-emption of Iran's apparently oncoming nuclear threat.

-- Politicarp