Cheney

Former US Vice President Dick Cheney
Former US Vice President Dick Cheney said on Sunday that military action in Iran is likely unavoidable in order to stop Iran's nuclear energy program.

Cheney, who served from 2001 to 2009 under President George W. Bush, made the remarks after George Stephanopoulos, host of ABC's 'This Week' program, asked him, "is military action against Iran inevitable?"

"I have trouble seeing how we're going to achieve our objective short of that (military action)," Cheney said.

"I doubt very much that the diplomacy will be effective if there's not the prospect that, if diplomacy fails, that we will, in fact, resort to military force," he added. "I don't have a lot of confidence in the administration to be able to negotiate an agreement."

Cheney said such action would have served as a deterrent to Iran, and would have put the US in a better negotiating position with Iran today.

The United States, Israel and some of their allies have repeatedly accused Iran of pursuing non-civilian objectives in its nuclear energy program, with the US and European Union using the claim as an excuse to impose illegal sanctions against Tehran.

The sanctions come on top of four rounds of US-instigated UN Security Council sanctions against Iran under the same pretext.

Iran has categorically rejected the allegation, stressing that as a committed member of the IAEA and a signatory to the Non-Proliferation Treaty, it is entitled to develop nuclear technology for peaceful purposes and will not relinquish that right.

Cheney was a key architect of the US invasion of Iraq in 2003 that according to some estimates killed over one million people.

According leaksource.wordprress.com, American and foreign companies hugely profited from the war. It says the companies reaped over $138 billion from the war with KRB, formerly known as Kellogg Brown and Root, the former subsidiary of Halliburton, which was once run by Dick Cheney, raking in the most profits. The company was awarded at least $39.5 billion in federal contracts related to the Iraq war over the past decade.

AHT/DB