“If Iran had nuclear weapons, it’d be a dangerous threat to world peace,” said the President George W. Bush in a news conference on Oct. 16. “If you’re interested in avoiding World War III, it seems like you ought to be interested in preventing (Iran) from having the knowledge necessary to make a nuclear weapon.”

Robert Duncan, assistant professor of political science, does not think it is realistic to believe this threat.

“I think this is a threat to the Bush administration, not to any sane American,” said Duncan.

“It doesn’t matter who is right and who is wrong, we can’t go to war with Iran,” said Henry Catania, a first-year international relations major. “We do not have enough military forces and Bush is not going to propose a draft.”

Iran denied the Bush’s accusations. Iran stated they were not going to create a nuclear bomb and just wanted nuclear equipment for peaceful functions such as power generation.

However, the United States government says it’s taking a diplomatic approach against this threat with no military involvement at the time.

Bush thinks that President Vladamir Putin of Russia is trying to help deny Iran nuclear-powered weapons.

“When we were in Australia, (President Putin) reconfirmed to me that he recognizes it’s not in the world’s interest for Iran to have the capacity to make a nuclear weapon,” Bush said in a press conference.

Duncan also says that Bush has been handling the issue wrongly.

“The way to solve the problem is to sit and talk it out, not to kick the stuffing out of the Iranians,” Duncan said. “Bush does not have any right to talk to the Iranians without preconditions.”

Henry Catania agrees with Duncan.

“We need to increase dialogue with Iran,” Catania said.

In the past, Russia has backed two sets of United Nation sanctions against Iran developing nuclear weapons. However, Bush is trying to push a third and Putin has resisted these measures.

“Not only should we reject the use of force, but also the mention of force as a possibility,” Putin said in a press conference.

President Putin also said that there is no proof of this even being a threat and Bush should not be worried about it at this moment in time.

However, without allies in Russia, Bush is trying to find new allies against Iran. He is currently trying to rally for Moscow’s support.

Bush says this is a threat that will last a long time and that we should handle it sooner than later.