Washington – President Bush on Monday dismissed talk of military action against Iran as “wild speculation” and emphasized that his doctrine of pre-empting threats does not necessarily mean the United States has to use force to stop other countries from developing weapons of mass destruction.
Bush did not deny reports that his administration has studied airstrikes as an option if Iran does not agree to abandon its alleged nuclear-weapon development program. He said he still considers the country part of an “axis of evil.”
But he emphasized that he wants to find a diplomatic solution to the standoff with Tehran and played down his policy of reserving the right to launch first strikes against potential enemies.
“I know here in Washington, prevention means force,” he said in response to an audience question after a speech at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies. “It doesn’t mean force, necessarily. In this case, it means diplomacy. And by the way, I read the articles in the newspapers this weekend. It was just wild speculation, by the way. What you’re reading is wild speculation, which … happens quite frequently here in the nation’s capital.”
Answering a wide range of questions, Bush also said he declassified a version of an intelligence report in 2003 to address public doubts about why he went to war in Iraq. “I wanted people to see the truth and thought it made sense for people to see the truth,” he said. “And that’s why I declassified the document.”
But he did not address whether he authorized then-White House aide Lewis “Scooter” Libby to secretly disclose disputed allegations in the intelligence report to a New York Times reporter 10 days before the National Intelligence Estimate was released to the public.
Libby, who faces perjury and obstruction-of-justice charges, has testified that Bush gave him permission through Vice President Dick Cheney to provide the information to the reporter.
The president’s appearance at Johns Hopkins was his latest in a series of forums in which he has spoken about his strategy for Iraq and then taken questions from the audience. He called the U.S. relationship with China “very positive and complex” and called again for a “compassionate” debate on immigration.
With some students inside the small hall wearing red signs protesting his policies, Bush said he welcomes dissent. “I get protested all the time,” Bush said to laughter, then called them a “great thing” in a democracy. “The protests really don’t bother me. I hope that’s not viewed as cavalier, but it’s just the way I feel.”
Bush’s remarks on Iran were the first since weekend reports appeared in the New Yorker magazine and The Washington Post on military options should diplomacy fail. The Post reported that the administration is studying possible strikes as part of a broader strategy of coercive diplomacy.
No attack appears likely in the near future, and the account quoted an unnamed senior official as saying that the threat of strikes against Iran is intended “to convince them this is more and more serious.”
Bush stressed his work with the Europeans and Russians to persuade Iran to give up uranium enrichment, which Tehran insists is intended solely for peaceful civilian use. But he emphasized that “we’re not only making sure they don’t have the means to develop the weapon, but the knowledge.” Recalling that he described Iran in 2002 as part of an “axis of evil,” he added: “I meant it. I saw it as a problem. And now many others have come to the conclusion that the Iranians should not have a nuclear weapon.”
At his morning briefing, White House press secretary Scott McClellan used the phrase “wild speculation” eight times, but he also seemed to acknowledge that the administration has studied alternatives involving force without attaching much significance to it. “Those who are seeking to draw broad conclusions based on normal military contingency planning are misinformed or not knowledgeable about the administration’s thinking,” he said.
Many military experts inside and outside the government warn that attacking Iran would be difficult and might set back its quest for nuclear weapons only by a few years while inflaming international opinion against the United States, particularly inside Iran and the rest of the Muslim world. Some are particularly alarmed by discussions of using tactical nuclear bunker- buster weapons to penetrate the shielding of nuclear sites.
Bush’s new National Security Strategy, which was released last month, cited Iran as the most serious challenge to the United States of any country and reaffirmed the president’s doctrine of pre-emption, first outlined in 2002.
In Monday’s comments, Bush used the phrase “doctrine of prevention” rather than pre-emption. Some scholars distinguish between the two – pre-emptive war in this view refers to striking when an enemy is an imminent danger, whereas preventive war suggests attacking an adversary even without an urgent threat.
