Let's Not Push War With Iran: Top Admiral

With wars still raging in Iraq and Afghanistan, the US would be hard-pressed to start a new one with Iran, Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Michael Mullen said today. “I actually am very hopeful that we don't have to get into a conflict,” Mullen told Israeli TV, though he reiterated he would “keep all the military options on the table.”

Mullen advocated stepping up financial and diplomatic pressure, leaving the military as a last resort to get Tehran to back down from nuclear-weapons ambitions. “It would be a very significant challenge for the United States right now to get into a third conflict in that part of the world,” he said. (More Iran stories.)