Posted on 02/12/2006 2:02:51 AM PST by Bush is Kicking Orwells Ass
US prepares military blitz against Iran's nuclear sites By Philip Sherwell in Washington (Filed: 12/02/2006)
Strategists at the Pentagon are drawing up plans for devastating bombing raids backed by submarine-launched ballistic missile attacks against Iran's nuclear sites as a "last resort" to block Teheran's efforts to develop an atomic bomb.
Central Command and Strategic Command planners are identifying targets, assessing weapon-loads and working on logistics for an operation, the Sunday Telegraph has learnt.
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They are reporting to the office of Donald Rumsfeld, the defence secretary, as America updates plans for action if the diplomatic offensive fails to thwart the Islamic republic's nuclear bomb ambitions. Teheran claims that it is developing only a civilian energy programme.
"This is more than just the standard military contingency assessment," said a senior Pentagon adviser. "This has taken on much greater urgency in recent months."
The prospect of military action could put Washington at odds with Britain which fears that an attack would spark violence across the Middle East, reprisals in the West and may not cripple Teheran's nuclear programme. But the steady flow of disclosures about Iran's secret nuclear operations and the virulent anti-Israeli threats of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has prompted the fresh assessment of military options by Washington. The most likely strategy would involve aerial bombardment by long-distance B2 bombers, each armed with up to 40,000lb of precision weapons, including the latest bunker-busting devices. They would fly from bases in Missouri with mid-air refuelling.
The Bush administration has recently announced plans to add conventional ballistic missiles to the armoury of its nuclear Trident submarines within the next two years. If ready in time, they would also form part of the plan of attack.
Teheran has dispersed its nuclear plants, burying some deep underground, and has recently increased its air defences, but Pentagon planners believe that the raids could seriously set back Iran's nuclear programme.
Iran factfile
Iran was last weekend reported to the United Nations Security Council by the International Atomic Energy Agency for its banned nuclear activities. Teheran reacted by announcing that it would resume full-scale uranium enrichment - producing material that could arm nuclear devices.
The White House says that it wants a diplomatic solution to the stand-off, but President George W Bush has refused to rule out military action and reaffirmed last weekend that Iran's nuclear ambitions "will not be tolerated".
Sen John McCain, the Republican front-runner to succeed Mr Bush in 2008, has advocated military strikes as a last resort. He said recently: "There is only only one thing worse than the United States exercising a military option and that is a nuclear-armed Iran."
Senator Joe Lieberman, a Democrat, has made the same case and Mr Bush is expected to be faced by the decision within two years.
By then, Iran will be close to acquiring the knowledge to make an atomic bomb, although the construction will take longer. The President will not want to be seen as leaving the White House having allowed Iran's ayatollahs to go atomic.
In Teheran yesterday, crowds celebrating the anniversary of the 1979 Islamic revolution chanted "Nuclear technology is our inalienable right" and cheered Mr Ahmadinejad when he said that Iran may reconsider membership of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
He was defiant over possible economic sanctions.
Man...can we just stop pussy footin around already? Are we going to wait until they HAVE a nuclear weapon to take them out? WHAT IS GOING ON?
Can we nuke em already????? What are we waiting on?
It's coming. I predict some serious 4th of July fireworks.
How about some 4th of March fireworks? The sooner the better. Drop the madness on those insane asses.
Please don't do it Secretary Rumsfeld! The angry Muslim street may burn down the entire nation of France! On second thought Rummy, can we start bombing in 5 minutes?
If it was a leak then god bless that patriot!
I really doubt he was "elected".
(Love your moniker, BTW: yes, Bush most certainly is "kicking Orwell's ass" in at least one sense of that expression.)
"Isolationism has never been tried!"
Sure it has, go to North Korea.
Thanks! I get so sick of those damn libs constantly throwing the "orwell is gonna come back from the grave" card as their sole argument. Anyone else notice that? It's about as honest as the "Bush Lied" simply because he didn't use all the intelligence available bunch of crap goin around. Does anyone of them even realize that Orwell wasn't a liberal but rather a pseudo-whig? I guess the libs think that 1984 was his end all and be all eh? I guess they haven't read his full writings. What a bunch of maroons.
Orwell was gay btw from what I hear. No wonder the godless heathens use him as their trophy since the only other thing they have from him is his most popular book (ignoring the rest of his writings). Maroons they are.
Why do we have to baomb them. We could let the Israelis do it. We could do it but why not let the Euros earn their spurs.
Win-win. The accomplish their task - no nukes for Iran and they are hated by the Iranians. They fail and they remeber why the US has led NATO for 60 years and STFU!
Actualy I heard they may already have them thus the reason for that a-hole Ahma-fatwah, whatever his name is, mouthing off so much. He wants a reason to use what he got. Screw `em all, nuke `em from orbit..It`s the only way to be sure. Seriously, enough is enough. We kiss their azzes with Clinton, they attack us (over and over), we take out a lunatic who was mass slaughtering them and rather than thank us they attack, you sneeze they attack, cartoons they attack...F- `em all, they`re anti-life anyway, all they obsess about is death so give them what they love the most. Pull out all our troops, start the countdown and melt that whole rotten stinking sand pile into glass.
No wonder they call that the "telegraph". Talk about tipping our hand. This kind of crap costs young american lives.
We could LET the Israelis do it but if that were the case then where are the attacks? Israel simply isn't doing it. Are you assuming they will?
Win-Win is very true and I hope your scenario wins out but the very reason I posted this is that Israel seems to be standing back. They should be the very first to attack but unfortunately they seem to be hedging.....maybe I'm simply reading things wrong, who knows.
Your STFU is rather unneeded though. If you disagree...say so....that pretty much negates the need for a STFU unless you're a damned liberal.
When Islamofascists stop hating our freedoms so much then it will be time to talk. Until then, war is the only answer.
Anything less is traitor talk.
Ask the 9/11 victims. Ask Nick Berg. Ask any of the rest of them.
When you see the talk of people like dailykos.com you wonder how they can even call themselves americans. But yet the media talks about them like they matter after they talk about Bush like he's hitler just because he spies on American traitors with al-qaeda without a warrant. These people need to wake up. What are they thinking and waht world are they living in? They clearly do'nt care about any of the 9/11 victims..... it's a good thing they saw the 2004 vote anyway....they see where the 9/11 victims stand. Bush won and we will support him in fighting til the end of this war against Islammofascism!
Remember how a truck from Iran with thousands of fake Iraqi ballots was caught at the border on the eve of the election?
In Iran, the mullahs choose who and who cannot run in the elections, with usually over 2/3's of candidates rejected.
The Iranian election was fixed to put Iamjihadjackoffjad as their president by the mullahs.
Set your beebers to "glowing."
Enjoy.
This is going to be what I call a feel good ass whoopin.
The U.S.. is going to dish it out and I'm going to feel good about it.
I have an Iranian for a neighbor and we discussed the situation and he says that it is Irans right to have nukes if they want. That Iran has never attacked anyone so what is the big deal?
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