Joint chiefs chair says U.S. could take on mission in Iran and Bush warns of WWIII

KEYETV
Posted: 2007-10-18 20:47:19

PENTAGON (AP) - The new chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff says he doesn't think the U.S. military is stretched too thin to take action against Iran, if that's what leaders decide to do.

Navy Admiral Michael Mullen told reporters at the Pentagon that there's "more than enough reserve" to carry out such a mission.

Mullen also said Iran's activities, including its support for terrorists, are a cause for "a huge and growing concern" about where that country is headed. He also said the focus now is on diplomacy to stem Iran's nuclear ambitions and its support for insurgents in Iraq.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates says he thinks Russia's Vladimir Putin is serious about trying to defuse the crisis over Iran's nuclear program. He says Putin sees Iran as "a security concern for Russia."

President Bush yesterday told reporters that "if you're interested in avoiding World War III," you should want to keep Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon.
The White House said Thursday that President Bush was simply making "a rhetorical point" when he suggested that if Iran obtained nuclear weapons, it could lead to World War III.

"The president was not making any war plans, and he wasn't making any declarations," said White House press secretary Dana Perino. "He was making a point, and the point is that we do not believe - and neither does the international community believe - that Iran should be allowed to pursue nuclear weapons."

If Iran acquired nuclear weapons, she said, "that would lead to a very dangerous - a potentially dangerous situation, and potentially lead to a scenario where you have World War III. But he was using that as a rhetorical point, not, you know, making a declaration."

The United States and its allies accuse Iran of secretly trying to build a nuclear weapon, a charge Tehran denies.

Bush, at a news conference on Wednesday, said, "I've told people that if you're interested in avoiding World War III, it seems like you ought to be interested in preventing them (Iran) from having the knowledge necessary to make a nuclear weapon."

Iran denounced Bush's comment. "This sort of policy will jeopardize peace and security at the international level, and is a barrier for peace," the Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman, Mohammad Ali Hosseini, said in a statement.

Hosseini said Bush was resorting to "warlike rhetoric" to divert the American public's attention from White House failures on international issues such as Iraq and Afghanistan.