By IANS,
Kolkata : Observing that America cannot afford a war against Iran, American historian and author Allan J. Lichtman said the US had no answer to the oil rich country’s issue.
Iran is suspected of running a nuclear programme aimed at building an atomic bomb.
“Frankly speaking at this point of time there is not going to be a war on Iran as the US cannot afford it. The Americans have this illusion that they can control the world but the fact is they don’t have an answer to the Iran issue,” said Lichtman Tuesday on the sidelines of a programme here.
“Neither Mitt Romney (presumptive nominee of the Republican Party for the 2012 presidential elections), nor (US President) Barack Obama have a clue of what is happening in Iran,” said Lichtman.
While the US has approved a package of new economic sanctions on Iran, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Ehud Barakhave repeatedly said Iran must be prevented from building nuclear weapons.
They have not ruled out military action to disrupt Tehran’s nuclear programme.
Lichtman, the author of “The Keys to the White House” – a system for predicting the popular vote result of US presidential elections based on the theory of pragmatic voting – forecast that Obama would retain his office in the next elections.
“Going by my predictions based on my system, Obama will come to power again in the next elections to be held in November this year.”
Lichtman developed his “13 Keys” in 1981, which test the performance of the party that holds the presidency. If six or more of the 13 keys go against the party in power, then the opposing party wins.
The “Keys” system has correctly forecast the popular vote for all seven presidential elections from 1984 to 2008.
About the US getting its first woman president, the author said: “I think we will get a woman president soon. If we can get an African-American president (Obama) long before we had anticipated, there is no reason why we can’t have a woman president soon, but for that it is important that we have more women participation in other important offices.”