IAF: Israel must be prepared for an air strike on Iran

haaretzdaily.com ^

[Next_Time_NJ]

Israel Air Force Commander-in-Chief Major General Eliezer Shakedi said Monday that Israel must be prepared for an air strike on Iran in light of its nuclear activity.

[Semper Paratus]

I am Irish and Jewish......

LaMchaim!

[Mad_Tom_Rackham]

We DO have unfinished business with them.

Roger that.

Carter's limp-dick approach to the islamist takeover of our embassy in Iran is what brought modern-era terrorism to our doors on 9-11.

[Strategerist]

Here we go, another USS Liberty thread.

Actually I haven't seen too many of them since 9/11.

Things probably swung too far in the opposite "Israel is perfect and infallible and always right" direction, however.

[Alex Marko]

NSA released recordings exhonerated the IAF in the USS Liberty attack.

http://www.nsa.gov/liberty/index.cfm

http://www.nsa.gov/liberty/liber00004.pdf

"For your info, it is apparently an Arab ship," says ground control.

"Roger," says the pilot.

"It is an Egyptian supply ship," says ground control.

"Roger," comes the response.

Later on the tape, the Israelis sound confused and concerned. Ground control orders the helicopter pilots to look for survivors and to check their nationality.

"If they speak Arabic -- Egyptians -- you're taking them to Al-Arish. If they speak English -- non-Egyptians -- you're taking them to Lod. Is that clear?" says ground control.

"Roger," says the pilot.

On the tape, after the rescue helicopter pilot tells ground control he sees an American flag on the ship, he receives an order in return.

"They request that you make another pass and check once again whether it is really an American flag," ground control says.



The NSA released the tapes and transcripts under the Freedom of Information Act

[zencat]

Eyup. Oh, we'll definitely 'know' when it's goin' down (i.e. AWACS, satellites, etc.) but I wonder if we'll be ahem. . . "just watching from the sidelines". My guess is that intel and such would be shared beforehand, and Uncle Sam might get some bunker busters in there just to show, if you "mess with the bull, you get the horns."

[Alex Marko]

Actually..Fundamental islam is a product of KGB policies in radicalizing the middle east against israel and the US. Then the US didnt help much when it promoting fundamental islam for its afghan war in the 80's.

[Strategerist]

The Luftwaffe managed to sink several German destroyers in World War II.

It's infintely harder to correctly identify vessels from the air than people think.

[steveegg]

I guess Iran is going to get a fedex soon ;)

Nah; UPS - What can Brown do to you?

[Schneppy]

Flying over Iraq would also mean flying over Jordan and awfully close to Syria and Lebanon and Jordan, some of whom have people in their defense establishment that would want to warn Iran. In the past, Israel has flown down the Red Sea to avoid Saudi Arabian and other (Egypt comes to mind) enemy radar. If that option was taken, it would also get pilots over safe territory (Iraq) quicker and without a turn around. Also, I remember a story a few months ago about the US selling Israel 500lb Bunker Busters...these would prove fairly beneficial to get at their nuke facilities, but a lot would be missed and they may be buried too deep to do any damage at all.

[A Navy Vet]

That can't be true. I've been assured that Israel intentionally tried to destroy their best ally's ship so the US would not see some nefarious operations by the Israelis. File this under...President Roosevelt intentionally let the Japanese destroy our fleet so we could join the war kookery.

[zencat]

Both wrong. Federal government will be delivering, via the F-15E Eagle. And we ain't talkin' no Pony Express baby.

[JillValentine]

I've been on a lot of Israel threads, and I have never once seen anyone here say that Israel was "perfect" or "always right." I have seen a considerable amount of Israel-bashing though.

You falsely saying that people here say Israel is "perfect" is a lot like leftist traitors falsely saying that patriotic Americans think America is "perfect." You and the leftists both accuse your opponents of taking a more extreme position than they actually hold, so you look better and they look worse. It's quite a common dirty trick.

No country in the world is perfect. However, strong, free democracies like Israel and America are the best thing the world has at the moment.

The hackneyed and ultra-PC line "Not all criticism of Israel is anti-Semitism" has been repeated so often that people have forgotten that some - in fact, a lot - of the criticism of Israel IS anti-Semitism.

By the way, I'd like to see an example of the "Israel is perfect and infallible" posts that you claim exist here. Maybe they're invisible, like the emperor's new clothes.

[af_vet_rr]

In this case, there's not really a clear "key cog in the nuclear machine" (just like with North Korea), because of how easy much of it can be distributed.

However, Israel can scare the hell out of them. For all we know, these questions were staged just to do that. Kind of a "we know what your doing, and you know we will react if we are threatened" message being sent to Iran.

[muawiyah]

The Holy City of Qom is the key. One MOAB and you've wiped out the next two generations of Ayatollahs in training.

[zencat]

In this case, there's not really a clear "key cog in the nuclear machine" (just like with North Korea), because of how easy much of it can be distributed.

True, unless you had hard intelligence on where the detonators were assembled.

[Tail Gunner John]

Seems to me that I read in the last month or so that the Israelis took delivery of some retro fitted F-15s with new fuel tanks which gives them an non-refueling operational capability over all of Iran.

I'm not sure where the nuke facilities are located but you would think the mullahs would have put them as far away from the Israelis as possible.

[oceanview]

I do not think these facilities can be penetrated, even with the best bunker busters we (israel) have. some of the above ground infrastructure supporting them can be hit, but the underground facilities cannot be destroyed with anything except a nuclear weapon.

[steveegg]

I do not think these facilities can be penetrated, even with the best bunker busters we (israel) have. some of the above ground infrastructure supporting them can be hit, but the underground facilities cannot be destroyed with anything except a nuclear weapon.

Which the Israelis have.

[oceanview]

yes, but we know that israel is not going to pre-emptively nuke iran.

[Tail Gunner John]

Do you think Israel sees the Iranian nuclear threat as serious enough for "total commitment". I personally think it is and feel the Israelis do too. Do you know where these known potential targets are located? Did the mullahs try to protect them by putting where such a strike would result in apocalyptic collateral damage?