Clinton Threatens ‘Massive Retaliation’ in Case Iran Attacks Israel

US Nuclear Umbrella Formally Extended

by Jason Ditz, June 07, 2009

Spending yet more time publicly railing against a nuclear weapons program which both US intelligence and the International Atomic Energy Agency insist doesn’t exist, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton today insisted that the American nuclear umbrella in fact extends over Israel, as well as “a number of nations” and that the US would retaliate “massively” in the event of an Iranian nuclear attack on Israel.

Missing from the interview and the warning is any mention of the fact that Iran has no nuclear weapons with which to attack Israel, even if it hypothetically wanted to. Perhaps more alarming is the rate at which the US is spreading its nuclear umbrella.

Just days ago, the South Korean government reportedly got a written guarantee for the US to expand the nuclear umbrella over that nation. Now it seems the administration is following through on previous reports that it would do the same with Israel, even though Israel has a massive, undeclared nuclear arsenal of its own.

While President Obama has claimed his goal is a world without nuclear weapons, he seems to be going out of his way to extend, dramatically, American commitments to enter into hypothetical future nuclear wars.

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