Politics

John Bolton predicts nuclear Iran ‘much sooner than later’

Amanda Carey Contributor
Font Size:

John Bolton, former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, sharply criticized the Obama administration’s handling of the Middle East while testifying before the House Foreign Affairs Committee Thursday morning.

Bolton focused on Iran and Syria, laying out steps the United States should take to prevent the two governments from acquiring nuclear weapons. He also had strong words for current U.S. policy toward Israel.

“And America’s disdain for Israel, its truest ally in the region, can hardly be comforting to those who have never enjoyed such close relations,” Bolton said in his testimony. “If this is how the United States now treats close friends, how will it treat mere allies of convenience when convenience disappears?”

Bolton took a characteristically hard line with the committee, stressing the need to take advantage of a narrow window of opportunity to stop the Middle East from developing nuclear weapons. According to his prepared testimony, Bolton, who is now a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute,  told the committee that Iran will reach nuclear weapons capability and “much sooner than later.”

He also did not shy from taking swings at the Obama administration, saying “I fear that many in the current administration believe that, as undesirable as a nuclear Iran would be, it is a situation we can accept and live with.”

Bolton offered dire predictions of nuclear proliferation in the Middle East. It won’t, he said, stop with Syria or Iran. “If Iran obtains nuclear weapons, then almost certainly Saudi Arabia will do the same, as will Egypt, Turkey and perhaps others in the region…” (TheDC’s Jamie Weinstein: Why Republicans need a foreign policy guru like John Bolton to enter the 2012 race)

He then added that in five to ten years, the Middle East “could contain half a dozen or more” nuclear weapon states.

To prevent that from happening, Bolton said, the U.S. would need to “use force pre-emptively against Iran’s nuclear weapons program.”

“The use of force is a decidedly unattractive option,” he added, “but since the only other realistic assessment is that Iran will soon have a nuclear weapons capability, it has to be taken seriously.” He took one more stab at the Obama Administration, however, by saying that it is unlikely the president will use force, meaning the responsibility would fall to Israel.

PREMIUM ARTICLE: Subscribe To Keep Reading

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign Up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
BENEFITS READERS PASS PATRIOTS FOUNDERS
Daily and Breaking Newsletters
Daily Caller Shows
Ad Free Experience
Exclusive Articles
Custom Newsletters
Editor Daily Rundown
Behind The Scenes Coverage
Award Winning Documentaries
Patriot War Room
Patriot Live Chat
Exclusive Events
Gold Membership Card
Tucker Mug

What does Founders Club include?

Tucker Mug and Membership Card
Founders

Readers,

Instead of sucking up to the political and corporate powers that dominate America, The Daily Caller is fighting for you — our readers. We humbly ask you to consider joining us in this fight.

Now that millions of readers are rejecting the increasingly biased and even corrupt corporate media and joining us daily, there are powerful forces lined up to stop us: the old guard of the news media hopes to marginalize us; the big corporate ad agencies want to deprive us of revenue and put us out of business; senators threaten to have our reporters arrested for asking simple questions; the big tech platforms want to limit our ability to communicate with you; and the political party establishments feel threatened by our independence.

We don't complain -- we can't stand complainers -- but we do call it how we see it. We have a fight on our hands, and it's intense. We need your help to smash through the big tech, big media and big government blockade.

We're the insurgent outsiders for a reason: our deep-dive investigations hold the powerful to account. Our original videos undermine their narratives on a daily basis. Even our insistence on having fun infuriates them -- because we won’t bend the knee to political correctness.

One reason we stand apart is because we are not afraid to say we love America. We love her with every fiber of our being, and we think she's worth saving from today’s craziness.

Help us save her.

A second reason we stand out is the sheer number of honest responsible reporters we have helped train. We have trained so many solid reporters that they now hold prominent positions at publications across the political spectrum. Hear a rare reasonable voice at a place like CNN? There’s a good chance they were trained at Daily Caller. Same goes for the numerous Daily Caller alumni dominating the news coverage at outlets such as Fox News, Newsmax, Daily Wire and many others.

Simply put, America needs solid reporters fighting to tell the truth or we will never have honest elections or a fair system. We are working tirelessly to make that happen and we are making a difference.

Since 2010, The Daily Caller has grown immensely. We're in the halls of Congress. We're in the Oval Office. And we're in up to 20 million homes every single month. That's 20 million Americans like you who are impossible to ignore.

We can overcome the forces lined up against all of us. This is an important mission but we can’t do it unless you — the everyday Americans forgotten by the establishment — have our back.

Please consider becoming a Daily Caller Patriot today, and help us keep doing work that holds politicians, corporations and other leaders accountable. Help us thumb our noses at political correctness. Help us train a new generation of news reporters who will actually tell the truth. And help us remind Americans everywhere that there are millions of us who remain clear-eyed about our country's greatness.

In return for membership, Daily Caller Patriots will be able to read The Daily Caller without any of the ads that we have long used to support our mission. We know the ads drive you crazy. They drive us crazy too. But we need revenue to keep the fight going. If you join us, we will cut out the ads for you and put every Lincoln-headed cent we earn into amplifying our voice, training even more solid reporters, and giving you the ad-free experience and lightning fast website you deserve.

Patriots will also be eligible for Patriots Only content, newsletters, chats and live events with our reporters and editors. It's simple: welcome us into your lives, and we'll welcome you into ours.

We can save America together.

Become a Daily Caller Patriot today.

Signature

Neil Patel