Gotta do something to pull the Republicans out of the election tank.
Interestingly, while searching for a photo for this post, I stumbled on this article from almost a year ago.
Pentagon ‘three-day blitz’ plan for Iran
THE Pentagon has drawn up plans for massive airstrikes against 1,200 targets in Iran, designed to annihilate the Iranians’ military capability in three days, according to a national security expert.
Alexis Debat, director of terrorism and national security at the Nixon Center, said last week that US military planners were not preparing for “pinprick strikes” against Iran’s nuclear facilities. “They’re about taking out the entire Iranian military,” he said.
Debat was speaking at a meeting organised by The National Interest, a conservative foreign policy journal. He told The Sunday Times that the US military had concluded: “Whether you go for pinprick strikes or all-out military action, the reaction from the Iranians will be the same.” It was, he added, a “very legitimate strategic calculus”.
President George Bush intensified the rhetoric against Iran last week, accusing Tehran of putting the Middle East “under the shadow of a nuclear holocaust”. He warned that the US and its allies would confront Iran “before it is too late”.
Don’t you guys get it? WMDs are a smokescreen. If that were the issue the USA would be invading Israel.
#32 Really! Who’da thunk it?
#33, All those commie, long haired, kumbaya singing, pot smoking, flag burning, dirty, protesting, fornicating, hippies would a thunk it.
You guys are missing the primary issue: if our defense department doesn’t have detailed plans on file on how to militarily neutralize every other nation on Earth, they’re not really doing their job are they?
On a “just in case” basis, you’re own nation better come in first, so they better have it on file somewhere. It’s amazing anyone would find this surprising – defense is the number one purpose of tax money. If this type of thing isn’t taken care of, then all tax money has been taken from us in complete futility.
How are the Iranians going to hit us back?
Any guesses?
I’m guessing that the Bush administration has not anticipated this question, at all. And, when it happens they are going to say, “No one cold have foreseen that…. [fill in whatever].
Some scenarios that come-to-mind are:
1) A serious terrorists attack (like a dirty bomb) in the Green Zone in a way which remains deniable for Iraq. The goal would be to make the Green Zone no longer livable for the US.
2) An overthrow of the Iraq government and army with relentless attacks on US soldiers, who would have no Iraqi or international support.
3) A serious attack on Israel while using Shiite militias to tie down America in Iraq.
4) A massive equipping of the Taliban in Afghanistan who will make it much more miserable for our troops there.
5) Initiating a 911-like operation inside the borders of the US, probably done a few years from now.
Those are just off the top of my head. Anyone else have ideas?
35
“if our defense department doesn’t have detailed plans on file on how to militarily neutralize every other nation on Earth, they’re not really doing their job are they?”
Thats the kind of sociopathic paranoid mindset that starts wars. If you apply this to individuals in a community order breaks down. It works the same way in a global community.
If America attacks Iran, we can never underestimate the desperate acts of a discredited regime. And then there’s Iran to consider as well…
What? Nobody here has any ideas of how Iran will hit back?
You know they will — this idea that we can bomb Iran without any retaliation from them is pure idiocy.
For starters — I expect it to be an asymmetrical attack. They know they can’t win us in a conventional war, so I assume they will hit us in a way that can’t be directly tracked back to them.
But no ideas? Anyone?
Just because the US thinks it correct does not make it so.
And Americans think the French are arrogant? Ha!
If the US does this I believe this will be a turning point of how the world views the US. The world is getting rather sick and tired of the US waving its ‘star spangled stick’ around in everyone’s face screaming Freedom, Liberty yadda yadda yadda. Yes, history is repeating itself but this time it’s the US that the world needs to knock down a peg or two.
Ask yourself this…list which countries are having issues with Iran? More important is to consider why and how did these issues and terrorism started and why against the US? Caution when opening that can it has more than worms in it, there is shit as well.
Cheers
#3
No. It would be a huge mistake for Iran (or Russia or China) to react militarily. Doing so would play into the Administration’s hands and the US military would eat them for lunch. Going head to head with the US military is not the way to defeat the US. That is exactly what they want. The way to defeat the US is through political and influence attrition as they are doing in Iraq. Iran’s best move is to act the victim and let the rest of the world back the US down through economics (which no one has thought to do yet).
It is naïve to think that Iran is not considering attacking Israel since they have said that they wish to wipe them off the map. In addition, they have openly sought nuclear technology for “energy only reasons” which is a complete farce. If Iran had the perfect opportunity to eliminate Israel, they would. (Of course, the reverse is also true).
The biggest worry with Iran acquiring nuclear weapons is that they would use terrorists as proxies to bomb cities and countries in order to maintain plausible deniability.
#41 BULL and SHIT. Eat Russia and China for lunch?
The US can’t even get Afghanistan and Iraq sorted out! LOL!
“If Iran had the perfect opportunity to eliminate Israel, they would. (Of course, the reverse is also true).”
HTF do you know?! LOL Israel does have ‘the bomb’ by the way and a its got the US watching its back so it can act like a ‘made man’. Israel is not so innocent by the way…
Israel’s needs a regime and attitude change – that is what needs wiping off the map…
Cheers
Anyone else notice that this is an Iranian website (in English) designed to build internal and international support for their regime?
I’m not saying that the US has or doesn’t have plans to invade Iran or any other country, I’m only saying that it is awfully strange that the most detailed public plans are from an Iranian source.
As for post #10, that’s nice that you found a site that “quotes” the IAEA, but if you look at the IAEA’s site you will see where it says “Implementation of the NPT Safeguards Agreement in the Islamic Republic of Iran
The implementation of the NPT safeguards agreement in the Islamic Republic of Iran has been on the agenda of the IAEA Board of Governors for more than three years, and lately also on the agenda of the United Nations Security Council. On 31 July 2006, the Security Council adopted resolution 1696, in which it called upon Iran to take the steps required by the Board in its resolution of 4 February 2006. These steps included the necessity of the IAEA continuing its work to clarify all outstanding issues relating to Iran’s nuclear programme, and the re-establishment by Iran of full and sustained suspension of all its enrichment related and reprocessing activities. In my report of 31 August to the Board and to the Security Council, regarding Iran´s fulfillment of the requirements of that resolution, I stated that Iran had not suspended its enrichment related activities, nor was the IAEA able to make progress on resolving the outstanding issues, issues that require certain transparency measures on the part of Iran. The IAEA continues therefore to be unable to confirm the peaceful nature of Iran´s nuclear programme, which is a matter of serious concern.” http://www.iaea.org/NewsCenter/Statements/2006/ebsp2006n020.html or you can see where it says “2. Finds also that the history of concealment of Iran’s nuclear activities referred to in the Director
General’s report, the nature of these activities, issues brought to light in the course of the Agency’s verification of declarations made by Iran since September 2002 and the resulting absence of confidence that Iran’s nuclear programme is exclusively for peaceful purposes have given rise to questions that are within the competence of the Security Council, as the organ bearing the main responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security;” http://www.iaea.org/NewsCenter/Statements/2006/ebsp2006n020.html
If there is one thing these morons should have learned already, it would be that air strikes are not enough to cripple the will of a people to battle an oppressor.
Oh and by the way while on the subject…a little trivia:
Iranians are not Arabs they are Assyrians, a Semitic peoples indigenous to Mesopotamia. They are Mediterranean Caucasoids, and are ethnically distinct from Arabs and Jews
http://www.aina.org/aol/peter/brief.htm#History
Thought I would toss that in for the hell of it…
Cheers
#44, Gary.
Read #23, #26, and #32
Your skirting the issues.
To #47;
I’m not skirting the issue here.
What I am saying is this is propaganda for the Iranian people to support their current president. He (his political party) is using the US as a boogey man to push the Iranian people to support his agenda.
#48 Now you are on something!
As I mentioned before our company has some inquires from Iran. I met some Iranians at some industry shows in France and Germany. My impression was good. My wife joked with them about Iran being a dangerous place (I wanted to hide under the table) they weren’t bothered and pointed out that Iran should not be judged from the media.
So what do we have? Americans that do not agree with their government and Iranians which also seem to not agree with their government. So better to bomb the shit out of them – for what?
It seems that Iran has diplomatic ties with everyone in the world BUT the US and Israel. Europe, Britain, Australia, China, Russia, Asia, India everyone has diplomatic ties. This should be telling Americans something…maybe its the US and Israel who have the agenda? 😉
Cheers
#36 “How are the Iranians going to hit us back?”
They won’t have to…the rest of the world will do it for them! (Including the 800lb gorilla)
The US would be labelled as the aggressor and treated as such – a bully.
Cheers
#26. “Who’s the only nation in obvious violation of the nuclear non proliferation treaty? Thats right, Israel.”
Actually, Israel is not a signatory to the NNPT, so it could not be in violation. Neither is Pakistan nor India. North Korea signed, but then withdrew.
#42
We eliminated the Iraq’s army in a month…twice. There was almost no military resistance in Afghanistan. It was all IEDs and guerrilla warfare. On purely military terms and in general, the US military is superior to both Russia and China and would prevail all things being equal. In any general battlefield, the US would own air superiority and that alone would make the difference. Obviously, location, targets, terrain and circumstance would affect any outcome. China has obvious advantages in manpower but still lags behind in terms of technology although they are catching up.
>> If Iran had the perfect opportunity to eliminate
>> Israel, they would. (Of course, the reverse is also true).
> HTF do you know?
The Iranian leader has stated publically that Israel should be wiped off the map. THAT is HFT I know. The only reason Israel has not wiped Iran off the map is that they have not had the perfect opportunity and that scenario would entail mitigating collateral political damage.
#50, T H
Exactly. Unfortunately the morani with all that infallible belief in American military power can’t see their dicks for their hands.
#48
Thanks for clarifying your position Gary. I guess I lost the plot in your lengthy post.
I agree that USA is a convenient bogey-man for Ahmadinejad to frighten the people into voting for him. I just wish we wouldn’t make it so damn easy. All the saber rattling Bush is doing right after the illegal invasion of Iraq really strengthens Mahmoud’s position.
I’d be scared if I lived in Iran. Bush seemed to win an election on fear of terrorism, I suspect that fact isn’t lost on Ahmadinejad.
#53 Mr Fusion *LOL*
Yeah that is funny!
The only ‘Shock and Awe’ is the US military can’t seem to get a the upper hand on poorly supplied fanatics armed with primitive weapons.
What the US needs to do is forget about the middle east – bad move.
Start supplying North Korea with weapons, under the table of course, and get them to attack China. North Korea’s army is almost as large as China’s. Then when China needs some help – HEY the US is right there buddy!! After all this is how WW2 panned out! *LOL*
Better to stick with what you know huh? 😉
#52 “The Iranian leader has stated publically that Israel should be wiped off the map.”
Not Israel as a country but the Israel regime is should be wiped off the map. There is a rather large difference there… 😉
Do you know what Israel is doing in all this? Do you think for one second Israel is not provoking anything? Israel can play the tough guy because they have the US watching their back.
All the US military power is useless in a fight with China and Russia. Air superiority? The US has THAT many planes? Forget about using any NATO bases. Even so what is next a ground assault? D-Day Reloaded from across the Pacific?
Yep the one thing you forget is that If it ever came down to this the US would not only be fighting China and Russia the US will be fighting the world, forget about any NATO or foreign bases. Everything will have to come from ships – planes, troops and so on.
So unless the US is thinking of its own version of a 1000 year Reich it only happen in computer games.
Why even discuss this huh?
Yep, Mr Fusion I have to agree with you!
Cheers
#51
Doug, your correct. Israel isn’t a signatory member of the NNPT. They didn’t sign the treaty in 1968 as they’d agreed to do.
I guess Iran won’t be either if we attack them. Apparently a nation can leave if they are at war. Thats a silly provision but oh well.
#52 “We eliminated the Iraq’s army in a month…twice.”
You know what they say, the third time’s the charm! 😉
#52 I got thinking how something can get eliminated twice. Usually once is enough so if is was twice then it wasn’t eliminated the first time…correct?
Or is this military speak? If so then the “Shock and Awe” must mean Americans when they get the bill for the war in the mail!
How childish of me to point this out.
Cheers
#50
Maybe the don’t HAVE to hit us back, but they’re going to, right?
Muslim culture (as I understand it) would mandate it.
If the Bush administration is up to their normal level of incompetency, they will not have anticipated this at all.
Many possibilities come to mind but I suspect Iran will make a play for Iraq. Right now they are satisfied to wait for Iraq, figuring Bush has already given to them.
But, if we start bombing, then it untenable for them to have infidels on their border.
Note to conservative idiots who don’t know that there’s news channels other than Fox News, here’s a short education on Iran.
——————————–
1) Iran and Israel are allies. – Hard to freaking believe eh? Both nations are TERRIFIED of the power of Sunni dominated nations, and the USA ironically enough is busy selling those nations weapons. Saudi Arabia even though its the biggest exporter of terrorism in the world has American F-15s, not to mention Chinese CSS-2 nuclear missiles. Believe me, Israel and Iran are really worried about those nutjobs, for a reason.
2) America’s “allies” in the region are the worst offenders. – Pakistan pretty much gave North Korea all it knows about nukes. AQ Khan admitted it and the Bush Regime did nothing. Saudi Arabia acquired nuclear, chemical and biological weapons in 1989 and to this day the USA denies that. Egypt is a dictatorship, don’t be fooled by “President Mubarak”. He’s just Anwar Sadat ‘Lite’, and Egypt regularly jails and tortures democracy activists.
3) America is the #1 proliferator of weapons to the world. Shocker eh? Whats worse is that we sell them to people that shouldn’t own them. Ironic that Bush’s excuse for toppling Iraq was weapons of mass destruction that we sold Saddam. Russia NEVER gave such idiots those kind of weapons. They never trusted anyone with WMD, which is why when they put missiles in cuba, the cubans weren’t even allowed to get near them much less operate them.
4) Iran is only protecting its interests, not threatening the USA. – Iran doesn’t have nukes, nor ICBMs. The Iraqi war is next door, they have good reason to be concerned, and America is busy giving advanced weaponry to sunni psychos in the region, again something to worry about.
#55, #58
Winning a war is a different than winning military battles. Sure, we twice defeated Iraq’s Army in a month. That is different than saying we won both wars involving Iraq. In terms of winning military battles, the US has unparalleled and unmatched success. In terms of winning wars which takes political savvy the US has a fairly pedestrian record.
Saying that Russia *and* China together could defeat the US is different than saying Russia *or* China could defeat the US. Why do you think we would not be able to use NATO bases? What makes you think that the rest of world would not be on our side against a European invasion by Russia or China or both? Clearly the US would not invade either of these countries. I would hope by now that everyone had learned their lesson about invading Russia. Regarding bases, we did not have bases in Iraq before we took the land necessary during military engagements. Bases are clearly important, but they can be acquired. The specific bases to which we have access is part of that set of circumstances I mentioned that can affect the outcome.
Regardless, you are talking about a catastrophic set of events and we can quibble all day about the relative effectiveness of the world’s military some other time on a more relevant thread.