Santorum Says He Would Bomb Iran's Nuclear Facilities

Think the United States should bomb Iran? Rick Santorum may be your candidate.

In an interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press” Sunday, the GOP hopeful criticized Barack Obama for being too soft on Iran and said he would bomb the country’s nuclear sites unless it opened them to UN inspectors. Obama, who has been more circumspect about how he might respond to Iran’s apparent attempt to build nuclear weapons, is turning the U.S. into a “paper tiger,” Santorum alleged.

The tough talk came the same day Iran announced it had tested its first nuclear fuel rod, according to the Associated Press. The country claims it has been developing nuclear energy, not weapons, but a recent UN report found evidence the country is in fact pursuing a bomb.

On Saturday Obama signed a defense bill tightening sanctions on Iran, including imposing penalties on foreign institutions that do business with the country’s central bank. If effective, they would limit Iran’s ability to sell its oil, potentially crippling its economy. In response Iran has threatened to close the Strait of Hormuz, a major oil shipping artery. This weekend the country proposed reopening international talks over its nuclear program, the Guardian reports.

Many regard war with Iran as a worst-case scenario. But Santorum’s statements suggested it would be his default position, unless Iran rolls over.

“I would be saying to the Iranians, you either open up those facilities, you begin to dismantle them and make them available to inspectors, or we will degrade those facilities through air strikes,” he said.

Santorum, who has languished near the bottom of the Republican primary field until recently, is running third in the latest polls ahead of Tuesday’s Iowa caucuses.

Other GOP candidates have also said they would take a tougher tack on Iran than Obama has. Newt Gingrich said in a November debate that the U.S. should attack Iran covertly, “including taking out their scientists, including breaking up their systems, all of it covertly, all of it deniable.”

Attacking Iran wouldn’t come without some serious costs. As a recent New York Times article noted, “the risk of tit-for-tat attacks raises a specter few seem to recognize: the first radiological war in history.” Specifically, Iran might retaliate by attacking Israel’s unacknowledged Dimona nuclear facility, which could unleash radioactive materials.