Posted on 01/10/2010 6:51:01 AM PST by Strategy
WASHINGTON DC, United States - A top US military commander responsible for the Middle East and the Gulf region said the United States has developed contingency plans to deal with Iran's nuclear facilities, insisting that they "can be bombed."
"Well, they certainly can be bombed," General David Petraeus, head of US Central Command, told CNN television as he commented on suggestions that Iranian nuclear facilities were heavily fortified.
"The level of effect would vary with who it is that carries it out, what ordnance they have, and what capability they can bring to bear," he added.
The network plans to air the interview later Sunday, but has released some excerpts.
(Excerpt) Read more at abs-cbnnews.com ...
But socializing medicine and taking over even more of our free enterprise is SO much more important. /s
Thanks FARS.
Thanks for the ping!
BTW - could the Petraeus comment also indicate the military is getting fed up with the Obama mindsets and showing it?<<<
Good question.
Israel is also getting fed up with all the nonsense games from our leaders.
Both parties mentioned are seemingly preparing to take action “with extreme prejudice” as the saying goes.
But before folks go bomb-Iran-happy, I think it safe to assume that there are a few Iranians missiles with dirty bomb warheads ready to fly toward Israel as we speak. Petraeus said it could be done. He DID NOT say it's a good idea.
It is very possible for us to bomb Iranian nuclear facilities, but Iran is bigger than all of Western Europe combined, so while we definitely would seriously impair their nuclear program and set it back a decade or so, there is no way air attacks are going to blunt all of their offensive missle capabilites, even if we go nuclear in a first strike.
Iran's missiles don't have to be brand-new state-of-the-art tech, just good enough to come near a city-sized target and contaminate it with radioactive material wrapped around a conventional war head. In some ways, that's worse than a real nuke. Improved SCUD II's on mobile launchers could do it. Frankly, I think this is the only reason Iran has not been bombed by now.
More precisely, perhaps,Iran is about the size of Texas, actually a tad smaller. Huge chunk of brush desert in the center. You do not have to bomb the whole area.
Sadly, several nuke sites built on purpose below population centers leading to civilian collateral damage estimated at around 20,000 with warning to populace and about double that if no warning provided to evacuate.
Apart from lack of moral equivalency, that civilian damage is a tiny fraction of the million or more Israelis who will be killed or maimed after a nuke attack by Iran somewhere on Central Israel. Does not even have to be pinpointed.
The radiation poisoning will also remove all Palestinians,from where they live near Israel (if they stay alive) regardless of factions so they might wise up and try to prevent and sabotage Iran rather than suicidally invite Iranian destruction on themselves and their families.
Then again, who ever asserted they were using their brains rather than brawn or in training suicide bombers (including those being imported into the USA by Oba-Hussein as “refugees”) are still “sane”?
In that context, who is closer to being in suicide mode, Obama or the Palestinians? You decide. Both are hell bent on destroying their nations.
BTW, the most important part of an effective bombing campaign is the “removal with extreme prejudice” of the Suppression Forces, not simply the nuke sites.
Already an act of war the bombs must also destroy all the Revolutionary Guard conventional weapons depots, missile sites, armored vehicles tanks etc., which would lead to a final uprising of the populace.
The collateral damage here could amount to some 100,000 dead paramilitary, core armed forces of the Islamic regime.
Also lost to the public, anyone in deep bunkers like the one built for himself by the Supreme Ruler some 250 feet underground would have little survival potential. While we have bombs which can breach such bunkers, possibly with several dropped on the same spot, the shock waves thus created would destroy any living creature inside them. Compressing the interior air and also through vibrations. The outer shell would not need to be breached.
“We should invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity. We weren’t punctilious about locating and punishing only Hitler and his top officers. We carpet-bombed German cities; we killed civilians. That’s war. And this is war.” - Ann Coulter
My main fear is what they do in the meantime. That huge chunk of central Iran that is a wasteland is perfect missile and mobile launcher hiding territory. If just 2 dirty missiles hit Israeli population centers, It weould be hard to tell who won, or who lost this exchange.
The Shiite sect is awaiting Armageddon. The world to be purified by fire, all infidels and bad Muslims (read "non-Shiites") to die and become the slaves in Paradise of the Shiites, who also die. Allah gets a clean slate for the all-new, all-Muslim world. I wish I were making this world-view up, but I am not. It is what they actually believe. As far as taking out bunkers 250 ft underground, well OK. As long as you're hitting the right bunker. Militarily, this is no one-shot, one-kill piece of cake
*bookmark*
Nothing easy about the Iranian situation ,eh?
The palestinians don’t have a nation. I would say the comparison is between Obama and Achmed-dinnerjacket. THEY (and their respective cabals) both seem intent on destroying their nations. They are the focus of evil in the modern world, and this time the USofA is not going to be able to fight the evil, because it is US.
That said, you could bomb Iran in such a way that they don’t hav electricity, gasoline, or food, or oil exports. You could shut’em down, turn out the lights. They wouldn’t have much of a way to project force when anything that moves gets vaporized.
Nevertheless, I’m more and more convinced the Izzies won’t attack. It’s just too far and too big to be able to carry out the kind of saturation bumbing needed to turn out the lights on Achmed.
I think there’s a wild card that the Israelis have been working on. A game changer. Something that Obama is determined to stop us from developing. I have a feeling they might be wa-ay ahead of us on anti-ballistic missile technology, and with the small area they have to protect, they may very well be planning on shooting down any incoming. Who knows? I sure don’t. They are better at keeping their secrets than the US.
And God Help the Persian if he launches on Israel and Israel survives the attack. THey would almost have to retaliate. In fact, the thing to do would be to retaliate within seconds, so that there’s no cajoling from “the world” not to act.
Thank you for the ping FARS
Thank you for the update.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/15/AR2009101502761_pf.html
Oct. 2009
A Hitch in Iran’s Nuclear Plans?
By David Ignatius
Friday, October 16, 2009
Since you’re probably not a regular reader of the trade publication Nucleonics Week, let me summarize an article that appeared in its Oct. 8 issue. It reported that Iran’s supply of low-enriched uranium — the potential feedstock for nuclear bombs — appears to have certain “impurities” that “could cause centrifuges to fail” if the Iranians try to boost it to weapons grade.
Now that’s interesting. The seeming breakthrough in negotiations on Oct. 1 in Geneva — where Iran agreed to send most of its estimated 1,500 kilograms of low-enriched uranium abroad for further enrichment — may not have been exactly what it appeared. Iran may have had no alternative but to seek foreign help in enrichment because its own centrifuges wouldn’t work.
“The impurities, certain metallic fluoride compounds, would interfere with centrifuge enrichment” at Iran’s facility at Natanz, reported the newsletter’s Bonn correspondent, Mark Hibbs.
This news strikes me as a potential bombshell. If the Nucleonics Week report is accurate (and there’s some uncertainty among experts about how serious the contamination problem is), the Iranian nuclear program is in much worse shape than most analysts had realized. The contaminated fuel it has produced so far would be all but useless for nuclear weapons. To make enough fuel for a bomb, Iran might have to start over — this time avoiding the impurities.
You’ve got to hand it to the Iranians, though, for making the best of what might be a bad situation: In the proposal embraced in Geneva, they have gotten the West to agree to decontaminate fuel that would otherwise be useful only for the low-enriched civilian nuclear power they have always claimed is their only goal.
and then on Jan 09 2010
http://www.memri.org/report/en/0/0/0/0/0/0/3897.htm
...
In response to a question about exchanging Iran’s 1,200 kilograms of uranium, already enriched to 3.5%, for 120 kilograms of uranium enriched to 20%, Salehi said: “Although we informed the IAEA in advance that our centrifuges are set up in such a way that we do not enrich uranium to over 5%, we do have the right to enrich uranium to a level of up to 100%, and we will always have this right. Enrichment to a level of 20% is also within our rights, but we prefer to obtain the [nuclear] fuel from abroad.”
...
During the interview, Salehi reiterated several times that even though Iran had the ability to supply its own needs, it preferred to purchase the enriched uranium, so that Iran and the rest of the world could assess the sincerity of the West’s proposals.
[things that make you go Hmmmmmm.]
your thots?
serious bump
You may be confusing the 1,500 tons of raw Urannium Iran was trying to smuggle in with the kilograms of what they want to export.
However, Iran has invested a small fortune in a new type of centrifuge that gets much better results in a state of the art manner - unlike the old way.
And as you say, they may be starting all over again with the tonnage they were trying to sneak in.
In that scenario, the “useless” stuff they have made, being refined and sent back is isicn on the cake and a pure dissimulation.
Specially as they can later claim purer uranium found there in teh future as being part of the exchanged stuff rather than their own new, efficient refining capability.
Please keep us educated as in this piece.
Thanks for the ping!
I do beleive the ones who put the Kenyan in power, want Iran’s nuke program taken out just like they wanted him to keep the war going in Afghanistan to keep Pakistan’s nuke out of the hands of jihadists.
It’s bad for business.
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