Tony Blair: West must be prepared to use force against Iran - Haaretz.com, Jan. 22, 2011
Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair says what today's world leaders are too afraid to admit - that the West must be prepared to use force against Iran. As published by Ha'aretz, Blair "urged the West to be prepared to confront Iran with force in order to face the "looming and coming challenge" from the Islamic republic."
Blair continued, saying "[Iran] has to be confronted and changed. Iran is a looming challenge. It is negative and destabilizing. It supports terrorists," Blair, who currently serves as the Quartet envoy to the Middle East said at the Chilcot inquiry, the U.K. inquiry into the war in Iraq."
As yet another round of talks with Iran (predictably) stall and collapse in Istanbul, the West must ask itself: at what point will diplomacy be deemed to have failed? When will the line be drawn? When will Iran's leaders be held to account for their continued defiance of international law? These are grave questions that must be answered.
The United States recently deployed the USS Enterprise aircraft carrier into the Gulf off the coast of Iran, carrying over 6000 sailors and armed with 80 attack fighter jets. Certainly this is a sign that the U.S. is serious about its calls for Iran to come clean about its covert nuclear program, and Iran's likely ongoing production of nuclear weapons. But will U.S. defense planners match their words with action?
We may be about to find out.
- R.O.
