Sunday, July 8, 2012

Iran's Press TV, "US economy too weak for war against Iran: American diplomat"

All of the major news agencies in Iran are quoting an article from Iran's Press TV entitled "US economy too weak for war against Iran: American diplomat" (http://presstv.com/detail/2012/07/08/249890/us-economy-too-fragile-for-iran-war/). According to the PressTV article:

"US Ambassador to Switzerland Donald Beyer has ruled out the likelihood of Washington’s military option against Tehran, given the exacerbating economic woes in the United States.

In an interview with the Swiss daily Der Bund, Beyer pointed out that the US overall debt has exceeded USD 16 trillion and the country’s unemployment rate stands at 8.2 percent.

Noting that the low-spending level in the US budget over the past two years has been unprecedented since the World War II, the American envoy went on to say that there is an implicit consensus among Democrats and Republicans that the country’s military budget needs to be reduced.

With 900 military bases abroad, the US has the highest military expenditure in the world; however the matter is no longer acceptable, he added.

Beyer contended that under the prevailing circumstances, no one considers war with Iran as an option and ruled out the possibility of another Cold War in the future."

Well, not surprisingly this is not what Beyer said in the interview with Der Bund (http://www.derbund.ch/ausland/amerika/In-den-USA-ist-man-auf-viele-Arten-frei-zu-tun-was-man-will/story/23305769). Whereas Beyer does refer to a difficult economic situation in the US and consensus concerning the need to reduce the US military budget, Beyer does not say that America's weak economy is "too weak for war against Iran." Beyer is quoted in German as saying:

"Niemand erwartet, dass aus dem Konflikt mit dem Iran ein Krieg wie im Irak wird, und es wird daraus auch kaum einen neuen Kalten Krieg geben."

Or, translating the German back into English:

"Nobody expects from the conflict with Iran a war as in Iraq, and there will hardly come from it a new Cold War."

But although Press TV has obviously misreported Beyer's Der Bund interview, is it the job of the US ambassador to Switzerland to categorize a possible future conflict with Iran at a time when Tehran is threatening to sink US aircraft carriers, close the Strait of Hormuz and destroy 35 surrounding US military bases?

I suppose you're best off asking Obama.

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