Posted on 11/07/2007 6:37:31 PM PST by Aristotelian
ISRAEL has drawn up secret plans to destroy Irans uranium enrichment facilities with tactical nuclear weapons.
Two Israeli air force squadrons are training to blow up an Iranian facility using low-yield nuclear bunker-busters, according to several Israeli military sources.
The attack would be the first with nuclear weapons since 1945, when the United States dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The Israeli weapons would each have a force equivalent to one-fifteenth of the Hiroshima bomb.
Under the plans, conventional laser-guided bombs would open tunnels into the targets. Mini-nukes would then immediately be fired into a plant at Natanz, exploding deep underground to reduce the risk of radioactive fallout.
As soon as the green light is given, it will be one mission, one strike and the Iranian nuclear project will be demolished, said one of the sources.
The plans, disclosed to The Sunday Times last week, have been prompted in part by the Israeli intelligence service Mossads assessment that Iran is on the verge of producing enough enriched uranium to make nuclear weapons within two years.
Israeli military commanders believe conventional strikes may no longer be enough to annihilate increasingly well-defended enrichment facilities. Several have been built beneath at least 70ft of concrete and rock. However, the nuclear-tipped bunker-busters would be used only if a conventional attack was ruled out and if the United States declined to intervene, senior sources said.
(Excerpt) Read more at timesonline.co.uk ...
I doubt that Israel will use nukes. Proper conventional bunker buster bombs will do the desired outcome.
Plus, on the world stage, like that really matters, Israel would lose whatever moral high-ground might be perceived by others. (I use "whatever moral high-ground might be perceived by others", simply because with the rest of the world, Israel never seems to have any moral high-ground, no matter what they do, or don't do.) How can one country use nuke weapons, to stop another country from developing a nuclear "energy" program. It would seem rather hypocritical (if viewed strictly from how the actual facts will be spun, not by what the actual facts truly present) to use the very force they accuse the other of trying to obtain.
Besides, Israel has never admitted to having nuke weapons. It has never been adequately confirmed either. Just alot of educated "speculation".
If Israel uses nukes, it then confirms they have them.
If they use them in a first strike offensive, it will validate (in their own minds) that every mid east country needs and deserves nukes, because of the existence of a nuke armed and aggressive Israel. It would also weaken the U.S.'s defense to the rest of the world who would seek retaliation or finger pointing at Israel.
There was an article in Scientific American in the last two years about nuclear bunker busters. I tried to access it but it is by subscription. As I remember, the article said the weapons were impractical because they raise the level of any conflict from conventional to nuclear and poison the immediate area which could later endanger friendly occupying troops. The article went on to describe a theoretical high explosive penetrator that could almost match the nuke penetrator in the U.S. arsenal.
This is a link to the nuclear penetrator:
http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/systems/b61-11.htm
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1806970/posts
Israel’s ready to go, let’s join ‘em. They know what they’re dealing with, unfortunately our Congress and many people here refuse to recognize it.
Thanks for the insight.
I don’t blame them.
If they were really serious.... they’d nuke Imanutjob’s palace at about 2 am some morning.
i doubt it.
I assume that is a typo because I found the item headlined on the Times front page and it links to that article. Go to http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/global/ and see under “US fears Israeli strike against Iran”
http://digg.com/world_news/Revealed_Israel_plans_nuclear_strike_on_Iran
Yes, it could be part of some action (verbally so) in order to get them to change their behavior. There is a lot of posturing that goes on, too, in these kinds of things.
Regards,
Star Traveler
Not a typo. I googled a phrase in the article, which showed this item posted to other sites early this year. Probably a glitch at The Times, because I clicked where you did on their front page and got sent where you got sent.
This is propaganda. It has been common knowledge to everyone who has been outside their basement, that every country with a military capability has plans for war with every other nation on the earth and probably extraterrestrials. I’m sure that Israel has contingencies for an attack on the US at least somewhere in their games book. The fact that the Times thinks this is news is not aimed at the facts, its aimed to stir up anti-Israel or anti-US sentiment among the Times supporters.
If we're talking a nuclear Iran you're right.
If we're talking an Iran backed by Russia, highly likely, then again you're right.
If your talking Iran with a coalition of other Arab nations, very possible, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon and maybe a few others, you're right.
If your talking a conventional armed Iran, by itself, with Iran attacking Israel, in an all out attack, I'd say the war lasts 3 days, maybe 1 week, with Iran not faring well.
The problem is the afterward. Iran is one of the largest players in the world oil market. The after effects globally would be huge. Add to that the alliance with Russia, and its oil and natural gas resources, Russia wouldn't sit idly by as Iran got its buttox kicked.
If Iran were sure of its conventional military, Ahmanutjob would be doing more than just rhetoric.
I want to see the look on Alemanutjob’s face after Israel or the US turns his country into a glowing nuclear ruin. I’m sure the Iranians will appeciate his leadership after that.
Sorry for the screw up.
A nuke is too valuable to waste on that whack. When the time comes, a single GBU-12 or GBU-38 will take care of him nicely.
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