George W. Bush reveals the not-very-surprising news that he considered a military attack to destroy Iran’s nuclear industry.
In Decision Points, his 497-page account of his time in office, the former president also revealed that he considered a covert attack on a Syrian nuclear site at Israel’s request.
Bush wrote on Iran: “I directed the Pentagon to study what would be necessary for a strike.” He added: “This would be to stop the bomb clock, at least temporarily.”
In Tehran, much of the media falsely reported that Bush said he had actually ordered an attack, not just a study of an attack. PressTV, the regime’s English language television outlet, reported, “Bush has revealed in his memoirs that he had ordered the Pentagon to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities.” The Iranian Labor News Agency (ILNA) headlined its story, “Bush memoirs reveal he ordered Pentagon to attack Iran.
Actually, the Pentagon had plans for making war on Iran long before Bush raised the issue. The Pentagon has had an operational war plan for Iran ever since the revolution of 1979. It is regularly updated. Bush, however, only spoke about an air raid on nuclear installations, while the Pentagon is known to keep plans for a ground invasion meant to subdue all of Iran.
Bush disclosed that his national security advisors were split over the idea of an air attack, with some arguing that destroying “the regime’s prized project”—its nuclear facilities—would help the Iranian opposition, while others feared it would stir up Iranian nationalism against the US.
The former president said he discussed the plan of attack with Tony Blair, then the British prime minister. He doesn’t say how Blair reacted.
Bush wrote: “One thing is certain. The United States should never allow Iran to threaten the world with a nuclear bomb.”
Bush also disclosed in the book, published Tuesday, that he discussed an air strike or a covert special forces raid on a suspected nuclear facility being built in Syria. He said he did that at the request of Israel.
“We studied the idea seriously, but the CIA and the military concluded it would be too risky to slip a team into and out of Syria,” he wrote.
The Israelis carried out the attack themselves in September 2007—an air raid that leveled the site. Iran is widely believed to have been helping the Syrian nuclear program.