Mullen: Nuclear Armed Iran Would Be ‘Calamitous’

Admiral Predicts Arms Race

Speaking to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Admiral Michael Mullen warned that a potentially nuclear armed Iran would be “calamitous,” and said he feared it would spark a regional arms race. “The downside, potentially, is absolutely disastrous.”

The comments were virtually identical to those by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who yesterday told a Senate panel the same thing. Adm. Mullen called for world leaders to unite against the proliferation of nuclear weapons.

Yet the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has continued to confirm that Iran has not diverted any of its nuclear material from its civilian energy program, and said it does not believe that Iran even has the technological capability to make such weapons to begin with.

America’s own National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) on Iran said that Iran has abandoned any programs to develop nuclear weapons, and that it was unlikely to even have the capability until after 2015. Still, the administration seems contented to continue presenting Iran’s nuclear ambitions to Congress as a fact, despite no evidence to that effect.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.