Responding to prompting by the Fox host to confirm recent reports, Wes Clark suggested on Sunday night that in 2006, "you could be looking at a military option to take out their nuclear programs along with their command and control, air defense, and retaliatory capabilities." He estimated that 4-6 days of air strikes would be needed for this US/NATO effort, and stressed that his estimate was purely based on his own conjecture.
Video available here at press time.
In further comments, Clark indicated it is entirely possible that the base in Turkey as well as others might be used, and he even brought up
rumors from the last month in the middle east of Cheney and others touring and talking up the concern with Iran, possibly in preparation for military strikes.
Clark went on to suggest that this would potentially "Strengthen Bush's hand at home" since critics wouldn't want to seem weak against a threat on the United States; at the same time, he acknowledged that Iraq-related intelligence gathering "wasn't very good" so he seemed to be aware this could be a very contentious issue, given that Iraq is currently far from settled.
What kind of support will Bush get from the righties, are they alarmed enough by the reports of domestic spying that they might not fall lock-step in line behind him? Or will they forgive and forget, and get back on the dissent-bashing train?