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Born at the Crest of the Empire

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

Bush's shifting language on Iran

Watching the Bush press conference, I noticed that he was pressing a slightly different language regarding the Iranian nuclear program. He repeatedly used some version of "we must prevent Iran from obtaining the knowledge of how to build a nuclear bomb."

That has a very different timetable than "we must prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear bomb." It would set the "deadlines for action" much further forward.

I don't know if this is a significant shift or if he simply got stuck on the phrase, but it seemed intentional. (Transcript not up yet.)

6 Comments:

  • Interesting. Of course anyone can get 'the knowledge of how to build a nuclear bomb' from the internet so it's hard to see what he's getting at.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 11:09 AM  

  • Well, I assume that to some degree it's aimed towards N. Korea and Russia. Despite his efforts, he seemed to confirm the Syria/N. Korea story.

    But I also think he's trying to move the "deadline" forward so that it falls within his preferred range of Spring/Summer next year.

    It appears the Russian plan (with unspoken Chinese backing)is to simply stall the UN efforts deep into the US presidential campaign or perhaps all the way through the Bush presidency.

    Just a guess, but that's how it's looking.

    By Blogger mikevotes, at 11:20 AM  

  • I'm starting to think the Iranians already have a nuke or two. Presumably that has been taken into US/Israeli calculations.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 11:27 AM  

  • Anon,

    For what it is worth, I really don't think they are that close. People used to say the same thing about Saddam or at least that he was close.

    If they had one, it would have leaked by now.

    Mike,

    You should start the "date to bomb Iran" poll again, since we all lost the last one, or is someone still in it?

    By Blogger Praguetwin, at 12:21 PM  

  • I tend to think they're not that close. From the publicly available info, it sounds like they still haven't gotten to where they can fully enrich.

    For them to have a bomb, they would have had to get already enriched weapons grade from somewhere, and I would find that pretty unlikely.

    ....

    and, Praguetwin, it seems less funny now, you know?

    By Blogger mikevotes, at 12:55 PM  

  • Yeah, actually my Dad just caught wind that it might actually happen. That's when I know it's serious: he is always the last to find out.

    By Blogger Praguetwin, at 2:13 PM  

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