Cirincione: Time For Clear Public Understanding of Iranian Threat

Traprock homepage

Interviewee: Joseph Cirincione
Interviewer: Bernard Gwertzman, Consulting Editor
Council on Foreign Relations
April 4, 2006

“I believe a military strike would consolidate the hold of the Islamic government, not loosen it. If you want to keep President [Mahmoud] Ahmadinejad in power for the next five years, launch a strike on an Iranian facility. There is no doubt in my mind that the Iranian people would rally around the government and would become convinced that what the government has been telling them is true, that the main threat to the Iranian people comes from the United States or the U.S.-Israeli alliance. I can’t think of any more counterproductive move if you have the goal of enabling the Iranian people to choose their own government, than to launch a military strike against Iran now.”

Read entire interview at http://cfr.org/publication/10331/