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AEI Fellow After Meeting With Bush: President May Take Military Action Against Iran In 12–18 Months

Reuel Marc Gerecht, a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and a member of a small group of analysts who were asked to discuss their views on the Middle East with President Bush at a private lunch this week, said this morning on ABC’s This Week that the mid- to long-term fallout from Israel-Hezbollah conflict could be a good thing because it may prompt Bush to take military action against Iran. Watch it:

[flv http://video.thinkprogress.org/2006/08/iranattack.320.240.flv]

Whatever the President’s plans are, there are no good military options in Iran.

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Transcript:

GERECT: I think more importantly — because of the way the Syrians and Iranians reacted — it is possible that the president has gotten very, very angry over that issue. If, in fact, you see down the road — because the premier issue for the iranians is nuclear weapons program — if you see down the road the president taking a much harder line on that issue

STEPHANOPOULOS: How much harder line could he take? Are you talking about military action?

GERECT: Well yeah it is conceivable you go down the road 12 or 18 months that the president will say nuclear weapons in the hands of the mullahs is simply unacceptable — as he said many times. And if in fact Lebanon contributes to the hardening of the American postion, then I would say that hezbollah actions in Lebanon were a great mistake.