Iran is working to obtain a nuclear weapon, a former CIA chief said Wednesday
while visiting Israel, and the US should begin military preparations to block
the Islamic Republic from reaching that goal.
“To believe anything other
than that Iran is working to get a nuclear weapon is hopelessly naive,” James
Woolsey said in an interview on the sidelines of the Herzliya
Conference.
“At some point someone is going to have to decide to use
force to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon. I’d argue that those who
say we can deal adequately with Iran through deterrence are quite
naive.
“National survival is at issue. In the near term that’s the
case for Israel, but in the somewhat longer term it is [the case] for the US,
which from Iran’s point of view, is the ‘Great Satan,’” he continued. “This is a
world-class problem, not an eastern Mediterranean or Persian Gulf problem. The
politics of the world will change if this regime gets the bomb.”
Woolsey,
a graduate of Yale Law School, was CIA director under president Bill Clinton
from 1993 to 1995. The veteran intelligence official identifies himself as a
Democrat, but has held high-level positions in administrations from both major
parties, and has long advocated a robust US foreign policy, particularly in the
Middle East.
Today, the 70-year-old is chairman of Foundation for Defense
of Democracies, a Washington think tank.
Woolsey said commentators who
view the Iranian nuclear threat through the prism of Cold War deterrence are
misreading history.
“By the 1960s, the Soviets were operating with a
nearly dead ideology,” he said.
“Though the Soviet leadership had many
flaws – and I’m delighted we won the Cold War instead of them – by that time
fanaticism was not one of their characteristics, at least for most of
them.”
Debates over whether the Iranian regime is rational, he said, also
miss the point.
“People who believe there are only two categories of
individual – the rational and the stark-raving mad – are quite untutored in human
psychology and human history,” he said.
“It’s not only raving lunatics
who want to destroy a country, culture or civilization they
hate.”
Woolsey said Iran’s theocratic leadership promotes an aggressive,
totalitarian ideology akin to Nazi Germany and Fidel Castro’s
Cuba.
“During the Cuban Missile Crisis, Castro knew Cuba would be
destroyed, but he didn’t care. He felt that if the United States were destroyed,
he’d be carrying out his life’s mission,” he said. “As for Hitler, he had a
two-part plan: Kill the Jews and take over Europe. Iran’s President Ahmadinejad
says he’s got a plan as well: Kill the Jews and take over the Middle
East.
“There’s no basis for the proposition that if you’re so intemperate
as to decide to use a nuclear weapon you are a blithering, incoherent fool. You
might be a shrewd, nasty fool.”
Containing the Iranian threat, he said,
will require a credible show of military force aimed at Iran’s Revolutionary
Guards.
“They’re at the heart of this regime – they’re the instrument of
oppression, and they run the Basij militia. They control the nuclear, space and
ballistic- missiles program, as well as the Quds Force,” he said, referring to
the Guards branch responsible for overseas operations.
“They’re at the
heart of everything repressive internally, or aggressive
externally.”
Woolsey suggested sending approximately five carrier battle
groups – each comprising an aircraft carrier and its escort vessels – to the
Indian Ocean, accompanied by bomber support, if possible.
“What these
[battle groups] are capable of doing – should the trigger be pulled – is taking
out everything related to the Revolutionary Guards,” he said. “Not the civilian
infrastructure, not the electric grid, not the regular army, not civilian
institutions.”
Still, he said, certain questions would need to be
answered before forcibly engaging Iran, including: “How fast the nuclear
enrichment is going; whether they’re working on a plutonium bomb as well;
whether they’re working on a weapon that could be delivered, or something that
would simply be detonated in the desert somewhere – like North Korea does to
make clear they’re a nuclear power; or whether they’re more
ambitious.
“All these could affect the specific tactics, but I don’t
think these should affect the vigor of the sanctions, or preparations to take
out the Guards.”
In such a scenario, he said, ground forces would be
unnecessary.
“No one is suggesting ground troops or mass bombing of parts
of Iran,” said Woolsey. “Instead, it would be an operation similar to what might
have been suggested to the Royal Air Force sometime in the mid-1930s to take out
the Gestapo, SS and stormtroopers.”
“The US conducted air operations like
this twice in the 1990s in Serbia – once on behalf of the Bosnians, and once on
behalf of the Kosovars – both Muslim peoples, by the way,” he added. “We didn’t
lose a single aircraft or pilot, and now in Kosovo there is a Bill Clinton
Avenue and statue.”