Dempsey: US and Israeli clocks on Iran tick at different tempos
Gen. Martin Dempsey, Chairman of the Joint US Armed Forces, Sunday night attributed the difference to the fact that the US is not exposed like Israel to a direct Iranian threat. The two have different evaluations of incoming intelligence and reach different conclusions, he said. The general reported that he talks with Israel’s chief of staff every two weeks to share information and evaluations on Iran.
Dempsey said once again that Israel had the capabilities to delay but not destroy Iran’s nuclear capacity. He did not refer to DEBKAfile’s finding last week that it is too late for America and Israel alike to achieve destruction. However, former White House adviser Dennis Ross made this very point in an article he published in the New York Times Sunday, Aug. 19. Like DEBKAfile, Ross noted that the program could have been destroyed before 2007 when “Iran mastered the full nuclear fuel cycle and the means to enrich uranium on its own,” whereas today both countries could only set Iran back militarily and “forestall” – not destroy – its ability to build a nuclear weapon."