Bolton Calls for U.S. Military Strikes on Iranian Camps

The UK Telegraph has an article today by Damien McElroy in which former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton calls for US air strikes on Iranian camps where the U.S. administration alleges insurgents are trained to fight in Iraq. According to the article, Bolton acknowledged that the risk of a hostile Iranian response harming American's overseas interests existed, he said the damage inflicted by Tehran would be "far higher" if the U.S. took no action. "This is a case where the use of military force against a training camp to show the Iranians we're not going to tolerate this is really the most prudent thing to do," he said. "Then the ball would be in Iran's court to draw the appropriate lesson to stop harming our troops."

According to the article, Bolton also dismissed as “dead wrong” British intelligence conclusions that the U.S. has overstated the support that Iran is providing to Iraqi fighters.

In an opinion editorial published on May 5 by the Wall Street Journal entitled “Iran Must Finally Pay a Price,” Fouad Ajami, an outspoken Iraq War supporter and advisor to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, concludes: “The hope entertained a year or so ago, that Iran would refrain from playing with fire in Iraq, has shown to be wishful thinking. Iran's nuclear ambitions are of a wholly different magnitude. But before we tackle that Persian menace, the Iranian theocrats will have to be shown that there is a price for their transgressions.”