The Definition Of "Not A Threat"

Vice President Joe Biden earlier refused to confirm to CNN that the George W. Bush-era plan was being shelved.

 

But he did explain the logic of doing so, saying Iran — a key concern for the United States — was not a threat.

 

“I think we are fully capable and secure dealing with any present or future potential Iranian threat,” he told CNN’s Chris Lawrence in Baghdad, where he is on a brief trip.

 

“The whole purpose of this exercise we are undertaking is to diminish the prospect of the Iranians destabilizing that region in the world. I am less concerned — much less concerned - about the Iranian potential. They have no potential at this moment, they have no capacity to launch a missile at the United States of America,” he said.

Experts at the world’s top atomic watchdog are in agreement that Tehran has the ability to make a nuclear bomb and is on the way to developing a missile system able to carry an atomic warhead, according to a secret report seen by the Associated Press…

 

The document says Iran has “sufficient information” to build a bomb. It says Iran is likely to “overcome problems” on developing a delivery system.

Sunni states in the Gulf are now scrambling to install their own missile systems and why, as ABC tersely notes, “There is real fear and some expectation here of a military confrontation.”