Lindsey Graham says U.S. must prepare to attack Iran
Posted on Monday, 09.20.10
By James Rosen
McClatchy Newspapers
WASHINGTON – Sen. Lindsey Graham said Monday the United States must be prepared to use military force to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon – and said that the last resort should be overthrowing Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Graham, a military lawyer and a senior Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, became the first senator to support direct U.S. military intervention in Iran, saying it shouldn't involve ground troops but be launched by U.S. warplanes and ships.
“If you use military force against Iran, you’ve opened up Pandora’s Box,” Graham, of South Carolina, told the American Enterprise Institute in Washington. “If you allow Iran to get a nuclear weapon, you’ve emptied Pandora’s box. I’d rather open up Pandora’s box than empty it.”
Graham said he believes Ahmadinejad “was lying” when he said Monday in New York, after arriving for the U.N. General Assembly, that Iran isn’t building a nuclear weapon.
“From my point of view, if we engage in military operations as a last resort, the United States should have in mind the goal of changing the regime,” Graham said. “Not by invading (Iran), but by launching a military strike by air and sea.”
Such an attack would be aimed not only at eliminating Iran’s nuclear capabilities, but also at rendering Ahmadinejad’s government powerless.
In order to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons, Graham said, a U.S. attack would be preferable to an Israeli attack because the American military is more powerful and more likely to achieve regime change.
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