I ask all FReepers to pray for the safety of my son in the IDF, who is on duty in the Jordan Valley.
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Posted on 09/24/2004 9:46:05 AM PDT by CHARLITE
The recent announcement of a deal for Israel to acquire thousands of Precision-Guided-Munitions (PGM) went largely unheralded by Elite-Media, who mostly yawned and ho-hummed the sale. One source, the Seattle Post Intelligencer did little more than the intellectually lazy approach, recycling an AP report but the numbers in the report were very telling: 3000 2000-pound laser-guided bombs, 1000 1000-pound laser-guided bombs and 500 500-pound precision-guided bombs.
The most important number noted above is the huge number of 2000-pound PGM’s – these are heavy, penetrating munitions needed to destroy Iran’s nuclear facilities. The PGM’s also have a satellite-targeting option allowing the attacking aircraft to ‘stand off’ great distances and lob the bombs to the general area of the target with the terminal phase of the bomb’s path being guided by satellite.
In case you haven’t realized the fact: the Iranian nuclear enrichment program will soon dramatically affect your life and the lives of countless millions in other nations. A massive showdown is coming over Iranian enrichment of used nuclear reactor fuel that will draw many more countries into the fray in the Persian Gulf. The Iranian nuclear weapons program is a huge, robust operation that gets little play in the mainstream media. It is the program of a country determined to be a major nuclear power.
There are a total of five Iranian nuclear facilities the Israelis will have to strike to assure the elimination of Iran as a nuclear threat for the future:
Tehran – Tehran is the command and coordinating center for the Iranian nuclear program, with the offices being located in a suburb to assure civilian deaths and what the media loves to tout as “collateral damage”. Precision strikes on the program offices, which include a missile program, should keep civilian deaths low. But the Iranians may cluster civilians around the suburban target if the government thinks an air strike is imminent. The facility includes a research reactor, radio-isotope production unit and multi-purpose laboratories. Arak – Heavy water production is centered in Arak. Heavy water is used to moderate nuclear fission in reactors. Large amounts of power are required to produce heavy water and the reactors supplying that power will need to be bombed. Natanz (not shown on map) – A facility containing gas centrifuges 200 miles south of Tehran and Northeast of Isfahan. Gas centrifuges separate and enrich uranium that has been gasified, resulting in a highly-enriched, bomb-grade product. This is the last step to obtain material for a nuclear weapon. Bushehr – A 1000-megawatt reactor on the Persian Gulf coast built by the Russians under contract. This reactor should have started by now. The used fuel from the Bushehr reactor will provide Uranium for many, many bombs and missiles. Isfahan – Containing a variety of reactors and Uranium conversion facilities, the Isfahan facility is a sprawling complex. Most Americans fail to realize the enormity of the Iranian weapons program due to the failings of the media, although pictures and surveillance photographs of the facilities are readily available.
Any Israeli strike will of necessity be massive, employing squadrons of F-15’s and F-16’s escorted by electronic-warfare radar-jamming aircraft to blind Iranian air defense radar. While the Israeli air strike on the Iraqi French-built Osirak reactor in 1981 was a relatively brief in-and-out affair the air strikes into Iran will be sustained and intense, with many dozens of mostly 2000-pound PGM’s being used to pulverize reactors, gas centrifuges, heavy water production and support facilities. A thorough job is required as the likelihood of catching the Iranians unaware a few years later is small. Iranian air defenses vary from good to bad to inconsequential. The biggest threat will from salvos of anti-aircraft missiles that may actually get lucky occasionally and succeed in downing an attacking aircraft.
American complicity is required for any strike to be successful; indeed, American participation may even be in the works. Israel may not possess adequate fuel tanker aircraft to refuel the strike groups returning to Israel and U.S. Air Force tankers will likely be needed. If U.S. Air Force aircraft join the assault the numbers will be adequate to systematically pulverize Iranian facilities to such an extent that resurrection of the program would not be feasible. Areas contaminated by uranium will be small and limited to the immediate sites although Iran may be willing to expend thousands of lives trying to recover nuclear material from the rubble for sale to terrorists groups for the construction of ‘dirty bombs’ for revenge.
Iranian protests that the nuclear program is “peaceful” and for electrical generation alone is a patently ridiculous statement for a country able to easily build many oil-fired power plants cheaply. Iran has adequate oil to run electrical plants at a far lower cost than nuclear reactors for many years. There is much information available on the Worldwide Web on this topic but mainstream media’s attention-span on the topic is practically non-existent, likely seen as a “boring” topic, those pesky descriptions of reactors and bombers etc. not suited for prime time. It will be a prime-time event, spanning days of 24/7 coverage, mostly by talking heads, who know little of the subject.
Neither the United States, Israel or many other countries intend on allowing the Iranian nuclear weapons program to succeed and will unhesitatingly widen the current war to deprive Iran of it’s imminent acquisition of nuclear weapons.
About the Writer: Chris Long is a life-long devotee of history, strategic affairs, military history, and geopolitics. He lives in Georgia and is employed as a computer systems analyst .
That moral outrage would quickly be forgotten if we were suddenly attacked, wouldn't it?
How long do these delusional people think they will be able to sit insulated in an ivory tower without any action against the evil that seeks to destroy us?
I ask all FReepers to pray for the safety of my son in the IDF, who is on duty in the Jordan Valley.
FRmail me to be added or removed from this Judaic/pro-Israel ping list.
WARNING: This is a high volume ping list
Yes they are, and we'd like to keep it that way.
Sigh...Israel always has to pick up the slack for the work the UN won't do.
Countdown to Armageddon ping.
My opinion?
Iran is lulled into thinking Kerry will be the next President, and they'll get the same hands-off, money flow the North Koreans got. In fact, NK is waiting for the same thing.
Kerry is giving aid and comfort to our enemies, and this is so disgusting.
I see it differently.
All of their support would be destroyed, and they would be on their own. No money, no supplies, nowhere to run.
They insurgents, the nut Imam included, would be killed in the streets of Iraq.
WWWIII has already started. Let's hope America understands how to protect itself.
Sounds good to me.
adios ayatollahs
guess it's time for me to go buy some batteries and extra water...
And the ramifications of Iran as a Nuclear Power would only further complicate the geopolitics of the entire planet.
And this is why the US has been doing piece meal dismantling of terror regimes.
The hard part is to do it without inciting an all out world war (which, of course, technically we are in already) A very delicate balancing act, clearly explained when Pre. Bush gave his axis of evil speech.
"Countdown to Armageddon ping."
Naw!
41 days to the end of the Mass Murdering Mullahs of Iran and their nuclear weapon production site.
Regardless of who wins our election, the MMM's of Iran will be gone the next day and so will their nuclear weapon production sites.
Is this a generally credible source? (I'm not saying it isn't; I have no idea.)
True, if Iranian reactors get hit by us or by Israel, the left will scream Bush warmongering and imperialism as usual and will claim we are killing babies for oil. If Kerry gets in, I doubt seriously if he will even provide tankers for Israel, he will consider that it's too controversial and will yield to his wacko antiwar base.
Nothing will happen before 3 November, IMHO. After that all bets are off.
FYI.
The coming of the end of the Mass Murdering Mullahs in Iran and their nuclear weapon sites.
Regarding the ramifications or Iran becoming a nuclear power, it seems like if Iran (or any radical Islamic country) becomes nuclear, the possibility exists that they will allow terrorists to use a nuke, possibly on us.
I imagine these kind of thoughts were part of Bush's motivation for regime change in Iraq.
Of course I realize that the US had plans to use suitcase nukes on Russia, and they on us, most likely, so in a sense, this kind of thing is not entirely new.
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