Proactively bombing Iran's nuclear facilities would be an act of peace and is the only "tried and true" method to stop a country from developing a nuclear weapon, according to former U.S. Republican Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota.
"There is only one tried and true method that stops a rogue nation from getting a nuclear bomb, and it's this: It is for a country like the United States to take our military superiority and to go into that country and to drop bombs on their nuclear hardware and destroy it," Bachmann told World Net Daily.
"That's called peace. That's not called war," she added.
Iran insists its nuclear program is for peaceful civilian purposes only, such as nuclear power generation and medical research. The recently inked nuclear agreement between P5+1 world powers and Iran will lift international sanctions against the country in exchange for Iran agreeing not to develop nuclear weapons.
Bachmann, a 2012 presidential candidate and former member of the House Intelligence committee, said if she was president, "it would take me half a nanosecond" to bomb the country.
"We would send out our military equipment and do what has to be done, and in eight weeks, the whole discussion would be over," she said. "The Iranian program would be done, and the world would be free from that menace."
Speaking to The Daily Caller on Wednesday at a rally against the Iran deal, Bachmann emphasized, "We're not talking about bombing shopping centers and killing innocent kids in Iran. We're talking about taking out weapons of death. That's the nuclear hardware."
"We know where [Fordow] is," she continued. "Go take it out, and it's end of story, move onto something else. That'll get the attention of these thugs in the Middle East."
Bachmann referred to Iran's main nuclear site, Fordow, which is built under a mountain and would require the use of nuclear weapons to destroy it, rather than conventional weapons, according to Raw Story.
"The United States of America can take out Fordow," Bachmann said, stopping just short of explicitly calling for the U.S. to nuke Iran. "That's all the further I'll go."
Bachmann then mentioned Israel, who she says would have an "extremely difficult" time mounting a "kinetic effort against Iran."
That being the case, Bachmann said the U.S. should give Israel more weaponry, such as bunker-busting bombs, and increased access to U.S. aircraft carriers to mount a possible strike on Tehran.
If Israel does attempt to carry out an attack, Bachmann said she is concerned President Obama would interfere, as he has reportedly threatened to do.
"I am very concerned he (Obama) would try to stop Israel," Bachmann said. "I think the president has already sent that signal to Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu that he better not try anything. Because President Obama might take (Israeli jets) out of the sky. He's already made that saber-rattling sound."
