By: Theodore Kettle
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., called a nuclear Iran “very likely,” adding that “you better get used to a nuclear Middle East” with Saudi Arabia and other Muslim Mideast countries following suit with their own nuclear bombs, according to Newsweek editor Jon Meacham.
Meacham was addressing the Cooper Union in New York City on Wednesday evening on the subject of the demise of conservatism when he told his audience of a Tuesday phone call with the prominent Republican.
“Will there be a nuclear Iran?” is the question he asked the onetime Vietnam POW.
McCain has been hawk when it comes to dealing with Iran’s nuclear weapons programs. During his presidential campaign, McCain raised a ruckus at an April, 2007 campaign appearance in South Carolina when he sang “bomb Iran” to the tune of the Beach Boys hit, “Barbara Ann.”
The senator’s pessimism about preventing an atomic-armed Iran suggests he has little confidence in the Obama Administration as it tries to forge an international coalition to impose stronger economic sanctions against Tehran.
Russia and China have been disinclined to break their strong economic and military ties to Iran, downplaying the threat the extremist Islamic regime would pose as a nuclear power.
Press reports indicate that the U.S. has ruled out a military option against Iran and that Israel does not have the military capacity to successfully destroy Iran’s nuclear facilities.
Meacham, whose biography of Andrew Jackson won the Pulitzer Prize this year, also told his audience about a conversation he had last week with “a very senior White House official” who asserted that “race is clearly part of the opposition” to President Obama as his popularity drops in the polls.