From Bloomberg: Greenspan Says Preemptive Strike on Iran Is `Difficult Choice'.
Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said the threat posed by Iran may force the U.S. to consider a preemptive strike, and conceded that the Iraq war, which he advocated, has made the Middle East "less stable.''Iran has rejected calls to cease efforts to enrich uranium, which the U.S. and its European allies claim is a step toward developing nuclear weapons. President George W. Bush has said he would prefer a diplomatic solution to the standoff with Iran, though he has refused to rule out a military response.
"It's a very difficult choice,'' Greenspan, 81, said in an interview with Bloomberg Television's "Political Capital With Al Hunt'' to be broadcast this weekend. "This issue of when do you strike -- preemptive strike'' arose during the Cold War "because if you didn't act, your country was destroyed.''
Expanding on his memoir, "The Age of Turbulence,'' published this week, Greenspan suggested the 2003 invasion of Iraq was justified, even though the country didn't possess weapons of mass destruction, as he initially believed.
Former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein "had access to huge amounts of cash,'' which could have allowed him to "buy nuclear devices or weapons,'' Greenspan said. "I could see him irresistibly moving -- in a sense irrationally -- to try to take over the oil fields of the Middle East by one device or another.''
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Posted by Forkum at September 23, 2007 10:52 AM
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