Lawrence Wilkerson, Former Colin Powell Aide, Blasts McCain, Graham: 'Bordering On Being Traitors'

Senators John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) are "bordering on being traitors," according to former Bush official Larry Wilkerson.

Wilkerson, a retired Army colonel, served as as Colin Powell's chief of staff during the lead-up to the Iraq invasion in 2003, when Powell served as Secretary of State. He has since become a vocal critic of the Bush administration's foreign policy.

During a recent interview with The Real News Network , Wilkerson took aim at McCain and Graham for what he saw as similarly aggressive postures toward negotiations with Iran over its nuclear program. Asked what were the biggest obstacles to a deal, Wilkerson first named Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose "extremely right-wing government" Wilkerson accused of being too inflexible.

Wilkerson continued:

And then you come to this country and you find Netanyahu's allies in people like Senator John McCain, Senator Lindsey Graham -- from my home state -- and others, who are bordering on being traitors in my view, because they won't let this president have room to achieve a diplomatic solution. They're all angry now that he didn't bomb Syria. . . . And so they're moving on to Iran.

McCain and Graham have both voiced support for Netanyahu's hardline stance on Iranian negotiations, insisting that the Islamic country abstain from any nuclear enrichment for the foreseeable future. Iranian President Hasan Rouhani has insisted that such a demand is a non-starter.

Wilkerson laid out what he considers to be a reasonable compromise: Iran would "limit its enrichment to what would be normally done under a civilian program," he said. In addition, the country would submit to "very rigorous inspections" for a period of around five years to guarantee that any program is "purely civilian."