Posted on 01/22/2007 6:42:11 PM PST by blam
Veteran of Entebbe to lead forces in Israel
By Tim Butcher in Jerusalem
Last Updated: 2:31am GMT 23/01/2007
An army officer with a reputation for plain speaking is to become Israel's next armed forces chief.
Maj Gen Gabi Ashkenazi will take control after the unexpected resignation of Lt Gen Dan Halutz last week.
Gen Ashkenazi, 53, fought in the 1973 Yom Kippur war and took part in the legendary 1976 Entebbe raid.
His promotion suggests a desire among the Israeli military elite to return to the well-established formula of relying on army officers to run the military establishment.
Gen Halutz was the first airman to be trusted with the task and was accused of relying too heavily on air power during last year's war with Hizbollah.
Israel's poor performance in Lebanon has caused a major crisis of confidence.
Gen Ashkenazi will be expected to turn that around. He will also face concern over how Israel should confront Iran's nuclear ambitions.
Yesterday, at the country's leading foreign policy conference, James Woolsey, a CIA director in the early 1990s, said if diplomatic sanctions on Iran fail then widescale military action will be needed, not just surgical strikes.
"If we need to use force, we should do it decisively, not some surgical [attack]," he said.
Mr Woolsey drew a parallel between modern Iran and 1930s Germany under Hitler, saying they both shared a fundamental reliance on anti-semitism.
Shimon Peres, the veteran politician, said he had lived through 60 years of Israeli history "and I'm telling you — there have been harder days."
You are correct.
Woolsey is sure right. An attack on Iran must destroy its ability to counterattack as well. It must be a sustained attack that in effects makes Iran a defanged military power. The list will be more comprehensive than what I'll write here, but it should include all of its air defense, all of its missiles and long range rockets, all of its air force planes, all of its submarines, all of its ammunition storage areas, all of its military communications systems, and as much of its land combat vehicles as possible. In short, all of its military infrastructure must be destroyed. This air campaign should be an attempt to eliminate Iran as a regional power and and its abiltity to be a supporter of terrorism, and it should force the Iranians to have to deal with the consequences of their nut case presidents global ambitions and the killings he's supporting in Iraq, Lebanon, and Israel. To wit, after this attack Iran's main concern should be within its own borders.
Should also remove ALL of its limited refinery process.
Ok.
But no collateral damage, right?
When push comes to shove, the whole thing revolves around the PBI.
Now, Israel needs Bibi as PM. (Then go back into Lebanon)
Jonathan Netanyahu.
One of the recent threads about the "next holocaust" stated that it would take an American-size effort, with bombing strikes daily for at least a month to destroy the Iranian nuclear program. What do you think ?
Not with the mayor in charge. "olmert", what a disgrace.
An attack on Iran must destroy its ability to counterattack as well. It must be a sustained attack ...
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