Invading and bombing Iran

Chick Yog makes an interesting observation about the Prime Minister's position on Iran. Every time he is asked about bombing Iran he moves the question onto invading Iran - two very different things.

From his monthly press conference in April:

Question: On Iran, Prime Minister, last week at Prime Minister’s Questions you refused to rule out the possibility of military action, including targeted nuclear strikes against Iran. Can we therefore assume that should the diplomatic process fail to resolve the dispute over Iran’s nuclear programmes, and the US decided to pursue a military option, you would consider lending British support to that? And also given that the Foreign Secretary has described military action as inconceivable and unjustifiable, is there a split at the heart of government over this issue?

Prime Minister: No, there is just a very, very obvious thing, which is Iran is not Iraq. Nobody is talking about military invasion, people do however want to send a very strong signal to Iran because some of the comments made by the President of Iran are totally unjustifiable, Iran is supporting terrorism in the region to the detriment of democratic governments, it is in breach of its nuclear obligations and people want it to comply. And so the real issue for me in respect of Iran is well what are you going to do about it? And all I am saying, as I said at Prime Minister’s Questions last week, is that it is not very sensible at this moment in time to send a signal of weakness, we want to send a signal of strength. But I repeat, Iran is not Iraq and people are very, very well aware of that here and over the water.

And his May press conference:

Question: Why has Jack Straw gone? Is it because he ruled out bombing Iran and you want to keep that option on the table? What did he do wrong?

Tony Blair: He was my campaign manager to become Leader of the Labour Party, and what he will do as Leader of the House is far more than the traditional Leader of the House role. He will effectively oversee what is a difficult programme being carried through Parliament (party political content) and any notion that it is linked to a decision about invading Iran - which incidentally we are not going to do - any notion that it is linked to a such a decision is utterly absurd.