A sobering Pentagon assessment of Iran's military capabilities prompted the top elected Republican in Congress to criticize President Obama for not doing enough to check the threat posed by the Islamic regime.

"The threat from Iran is real," House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, told reporters on Capitol Hill on Thursday.  "It's real for our closest ally, Israel, and it's real for all of the countries in the region."

Boehner cited the passage of a Iran sanctions package by Congress and suggested Mr. Obama had not fully exploited it.  "We gave the president a full toolbox of tools to use, sanctions to use, to help bring the Iranians to heel," Boehner said.  "The president ought to use more of the tools that were given to him to get Iran to declare that they're not going to produce nuclear weapons."

Iran has, in fact, declared many times that it has no intention of producing nuclear weapons.