Should Israel decide to launch a strike on Iran, its pilots would have to fly more than 1,000 miles across unfriendly airspace, refuel in the air en route, fight off Iran’s air defenses, attack multiple underground sites simultaneously ”” and use at least 100 planes.
That is the assessment of American defense officials and military analysts close to the Pentagon, who say that an Israeli attack meant to set back Iran’s nuclear program would be a huge and highly complex operation. They describe it as far different from Israel’s “surgical” strikes on a nuclear reactor in Syria in 2007 and Iraq’s Osirak reactor in 1981.
The Iranians are complaining that the Israelis have been assassinating Iranian nuclear scientists. The lateral thinkers in Tel Aviv might have found a more efficient way of accomplishing their goals than using airstrikes.
I take the twelvers in Tehran at their word. I also take the Israeli’s at theirs – “never again.”
[b]Never[/b] underestimate the Israelis; it could prove fatal. And they’re most assuredly [b]not kidding[/b] when they say [b]”Never again!”[/b] They mean just exactly that.
This sort of speculation is probably not helpful.
It doesn’t do any good to hide one’s head in the sand, either. I don’t advocate a preemptive strike, but then again, I’m not an Israeli who faces the very real possibility that Amadinejad will order a nuclear missile attack on his homeland.
[blockquote]the very real possibility that Amadinejad will order a nuclear missile attack on his homeland[/blockquote]
Well of course that is what is the danger, and the Iranians have always made it clear that what they are after.
It’s just that I am doubtful about the wisdom of doing the work for the Iranians as to what the US or Israel might have as tactical options by setting it out in detail in the New York Times, but hey, what do I know?
#4–Amadinejad admires Hitler and proposed putting up a statue to him in Tehran. His boss has called Judaism a cancer that must be wiped from the face of the earth. Iran will soon have a nuclear weapon. Israel already has them. It doesn’t take much speculation to figure out this can’t be a good scenario. And our government has officially stated this is not a high priority for us. Obama’s domestic policy will assure your great grandchildren will be saddled with over bearing debt. Obama’s foreign policy will assure your great grand children will get the opportunity to serve in the military.
I certainly don’t advocate a war between Israel and Iran……cerrtainly not a nuclear exchange by any means. The Israelis do have the right and the duty to defend themselves, however.
Personally, I think Amadinejad is all bluster…..smoke and mirrors, if you will, because he knows that his country will lie in ruins if he uses those weapons against Israel, and the rest of the countries in the region won’t stand for his starting the war. They may not like the Israelis, but they don’t like the possibility of a war even more, and that’s one thing that they want desperately to avoid.
The economic sanctions against Iran are working, and sooner or later, the Iranian people are going to demand a change……a peaceful one at that.
#8–They already did. They rose up in the streets 2 1/2 years ago and Obama did NOTHING. He said he’d rather negotiate. Obviously a nuclear exchange is insane, but if it happens it will lay directly on the shoulders of the president. As you know as a former military person, the bigger fear will be confining the conflict to the mid-east, and that will be very hard to do. The administration needs to be worrying about that before it is too late–and it may already be too late.
The solution to the Middle East problem is very hard to determine……if there ever is to be a solution other than war. When you have two sides who are intractable with neither willing to give an inch, then something is going to “give,” and people are going to die as a result. The Israelis want to survive as a nation, and so do the Iranians, but neither are willing to yield. If there is ever to be true peace in the region, somebody has got to say “Enough! Let’s talk.”
The Israelis have expressed concern that the “window” within which they can stop Iran’s nuclear programme through military action is rapidly closing. Their Defense Forces and our military establishment know far more about it than we civilians, but I strongly suspect, particularly for the Israelis, that the window permitting a totally effective military strike has already closed. The same may be true for the Americans, short of total war.
NoVA, You are, sadly, correct. Obama’s inaction has put the entire planet at huge risk, nd it didn’t need to happen.