THE Pentagon has drawn up plans for massive airstrikes against 1,200 targets in Iran, designed to annihilate the Iranians\u2019 military capability in three days, according to a national security expert.<\/p>\n
Alexis Debat, director of terrorism and national security at the Nixon Center, said last week that US military planners were not preparing for \u201cpinprick strikes\u201d\u009d against Iran\u2019s nuclear facilities. \u201cThey\u2019re about taking out the entire Iranian military,\u201d\u009d he said.<\/p>\n
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: \u201cWhether you go for pinprick strikes or all-out military action, the reaction from the Iranians will be the same.\u201d\u009d It was, he added, a \u201cvery legitimate strategic calculus\u201d\u009d.<\/p>\n
President George Bush intensified the rhetoric against Iran last week, accusing Tehran of putting the Middle East \u201cunder the shadow of a nuclear holocaust\u201d\u009d. He warned that the US and its allies would confront Iran \u201cbefore it is too late\u201d\u009d.<\/p>\n